those small parcels is made so glowing hot that it is melted into a Vitrum which by the ambient Air is thrust into the form of a Ball. A Fifth thing which I thought worth Examination was Whether the motion of all kind of Springs might not be reduced to the Principle whereby the included heterogeneous fluid seems to be moved or to that whereby two Solids as Marbles or the like are thrust and kept together by the ambient fluid A Sixth thing was Whether the Rising and Ebullition of the Water out of Springs and Fountains which lie much higher from the Center of the Earth then the Superficies of the Sea from whence it seems to be derived may not be explicated by the rising of Water in a smaller Pipe For the Sea-water being strained through the Pores or Crannies of the Earth is as it were included in little Pipes where the pressure of the Air has not so great a power to resist its rising But examining this way and finding in it several difficulties almost irremovable I thought upon a way that would much more naturally and conceivably explain it which was by this following Experiment I took a Glass-Tube of the form of that described in the sixth Figure and chusing two heterogeneous fluids such as Water and Oyl I poured in as much Water as filled up the Pipes as high as AB then putting in some Oyl into the Tube AC I deprest the superficies A of the Water to E and BI raised to G which was not so high perpendicularly as the superficies of the Oyl F by the space FI wherefore the proportion of the gravity of these two Liquors was as GH to FE This Experiment I tried with several other Liquors and particularly with fresh Water and Salt which I made by dissolving Salt in warm Water which two though they are nothing heterogeneous yet before they would perfectly mix one with another I made trial of the Experiment Nay letting the Tube wherein I tried the Experiment remain for many dayes I observed them not to mix but the superficies of the fresh was rather more then less elevated above that of the Salt Now the proportion of the gravity of Sea-water to that of River-water according to Stevinus and Varenius and as I have since found pretty true by making trial my self is as 46. to 45. that is 46. Ounces of the salt Water will take up no more room then 45. of the fresh Or reciprocally 45 pints of salt-water weigh as much as 46 of fresh But I found the proportion of Brine to fresh Water to be near 13 to 12 Supposing therefore GHM to represent the Sea and FI the height of the Mountain above the Superficies of the Sea FM a Cavern in the Earth beginning at the bottom of the Sea and terminated at the top of the Mountain LM the Sand at the bottom through which the Water is as it were strained so as that the fresher parts are only permitted to transude and the saline kept back if therefore the proportion of GM to FM be as 45 to 46 then may the Cylinder of salt-Salt-water GM make the Cylinder of Fresh-water to rise as high as E and to run over at N. I cannot here stand to examine or confute their Opinion who make the depth of the Sea below its Superficies to be no more perpendicularly measured then the height of the Mountains above it 'T is enough for me to say there is no one of those that have asserted it have experimentally known the perpendicular of either nor shall I here determine whether there may not be many other causes of the separation of the fresh water from the salt as perhaps some parts of the Earth through which it is to pass may contain a Salt that mixing and uniting with the Sea-salt may precipitate it much after the same manner as the Alkalizate and Acid Salts mix and precipitate each other in the preparation of Tartarum Vitriolatum I know not also whether the exceeding cold that must necessarily be at the bottom of the Water may not help towards this separation for we find that warm Water is able to dissolve and contain more Salt then the same cold insomuch that Brines strongly impregnated by heat if let cool do suffer much of their Salt to subside and crystallize about the bottom and sides I know not also whether the exceeding pressure of the parts of the Water one against another may not keep the Salt from descending to the very bottom as finding little or no room to insert it self between those parts protruded so violently together or else squeeze it upwards into the superiour parts of the Sea where it may more easily obtain room for it self amongst the parts of the Water by reason that there is more heat and less pressure To this Opinion I was somewhat the more induced by the relations I have met with in Geograhical Writers of drawing fresh Water from the bottom of the Sea which is salt above I cannot now stand to examine whether this natural perpetual motion may not artificially be imitated Nor can I stand to answer the Objections which may be made against this my Supposition As First How it comes to pass that there are sometimes salt Springs much higher then the Superficies of the Water And Secondly Why Springs do not run faster and slower according to the varying height made of the Cylinder of Sea-water by the ebbing and flowing of the Sea As to the First In short I say the fresh Water may receive again a saline Tincture near the Superficies of the Earth by passing through some salt Mines or else many of the saline parts of the Sea may be kept back though not all And as to the Second The same Spring may be fed and supplyed by divers Caverns coming from very far distant parts of the Sea so as that it may in one place be high in another low water and so by that means the Spring may be equally supply'd at all times Or else the Cavern may be so straight and narrow that the water not having so ready and free passage through it cannot upon so short and quick mutations of pressure be able to produce any sensible effect at such a distance Besides that to confirm this hypothesis there are many Examples found in Natural Historians of Springs that do ebb and flow like the Sea As particularly those recorded by the Learned Camden and after him by Speed to be found in this Island One of which they relate to be on the Top of a Mountain by the small Village Kilken in Flintshire Maris aemulus qui statis temporibus suas evomit resorbet Aquas Which at certain times riseth and falleth after the manner of the Sea A Second in Caermardenshire near Caermarden at a place called Cantred Bichan Qui ut scribit Giraldus naturali die â—is undis deficiens toties exuberans marinos imitatur instabilitates That twice in four and twenty hours
Earth and sprunkling a little warm water thereon would within four days produce Mushroms fit to be eaten at what time one will As also that Mushroms may be made to grow at the foot of a wilde Poplar Tree within four days after warm water wherein some leaves have been dissolv'd shall be pour'd into the Root which must be slit and the stock above ground Next that as Mushroms may be generated without seed so does it not appear that they have any such thing as seed in any part of them for having considered several kinds of them I could never â—â—nd any thing in them that I could with any probability ghess to be the â—eed of it so that it does not as yet appear that I know of that Mushroms may be generated from a seed but they rather seem to depend merely upon a convenient constitution of the matter out of which they are made and a concurrence of either natural or artificial heat Thirdly that by several bodies as Salts and Metals both in Water and in the air and by several kinds of sublimations in the Air actuated and guided with a congruous heat there may be produc'd several kinds of bodies as curiously if not of a more compos'd Figure several kinds of rising or Ebulliating Figures seem to manifest as witness the â—â—ooting in the Rectification of spirits of Vrine Hart-horn Eloud c. witness also the curious branches of evaporated dissolutions some of them against the sides of the containing Jar others standing up or growing an end out of the bottom of which I have taken notice of a very great variety But above all the rest it is a very pretty kind of Germination which is afforded us in the Silver Tree the manner of making which with Mercury and Silver is well known to the Chymists in which there is an Ebullition or Germination very much like this of Mushroms if I have been rightly inform'd of it Fourthly I have very often taken notice of and also observ'd with a Microscope certain excrescencies or Ebullitions in the snuff of a Candle which partly from the sticking of the smoaky particles as they are carryed upwards by the current of the rarify'd Air and flame and partly also from a kind of Germination or Ebullition of some actuated unctuous parts which creep along and filter through some small string of the Week are formed into pretty round and uniform heads very much resembling the form of hooded Mushroms which being by any means expos'd to the fresh Air or that air which encompasses the flame they are presently lick'd up and devour'd by it and vanish The reason of which Phaenomenon seems to me to be no other then this That when a convenient thread of the Week is so bent out by the sides of the snuff that are about half an Inch or more remov'd above the bottom or lowest part of the flame and that this part be wholly included in the flame the Oyl for the reason of filtration which I have elsewhere rendred being continualy driven up the snuff is driven likewise into this ragged bended-end and this being remov'd a good distance as half an Inch or more above the bottom of the flame the parts of the air that passes by it are already almost satiated with the dissolution of the boiling unctuous steams that issued out below and therefore are not onely glutted that is can dissolve no more then what they are already acting upon but they carry up with them abundance of unctuous and sooty particles which meeting with that rag of the Week that is plentifully fill'd with Oyl and onely spends it as fast as it evaporates and not at all by dissolution of burning by means of these steamy parts of the filterated Oyl issuing out at the sides of this ragg and being inclos'd with an air that is already satiated and cannot prey upon them nor burn them the ascending sooty particles are stay'd about it and fix'd so as that about the end of that ragg or filament of the snuff whence the greatest part of the steams issue there is conglobated or fix'd a round and pretty uniform cap much resembling the head of a Mushrom which if it be of any great bigness you may observe that its undersidâ— will be bigger then that which is above the ragg or stem of it for the Oyl that is brought into it by filtration being by the bulk of the cap a little shelter'd from the heat of the flame does by that means issue as much out from beneath from the stalk or downwards as it does upwards and by reason of the great access of the adventitious smoak from beneath it increases most that way That this may be the true reason of this Phaenomenon I could produce many Arguments and Experiments to make it probable As First that the Filtration carries the Oyl to the top of the Week at least as high as these raggs is visible to one that will observe the snuff of a burning Candle with a Microscope where he may see an Ebullition or bubbling of the Oyl as high as the snuff looks black Next that it does steam away more then burn I could tell you of the dim burning of a Candle the longer the snuff be which arises from the abundance of vapours out of the higher parts of it And thirdly that in the middle of the flame of the Candle neer the top of the snuff the fire or dissolving principle is nothing neer so strong as neer the bottom and out edges of the flame which may be observ'd by the burning asunder of a thread that will first break in those parts that the edges of the flame touch and not in the middle And I could add several Observables that I have taken notice of in the flame of a Lamp actuated with Bellows and very many others that confirm me in my opinion but that it is not so much to my present purpose which is onely to consider this concreet in the snuff of a Candle so farr as it has any resemblance of a Mushrom to the consideration of which that I may return I say we may also observe In the first place that the droppings or trillings of Lapidescent waters in Vaults under ground seem to constitute a kind of petrify'd body form'd almost like some kind of Mushroms inverted in so much that I have seen some knobb'd a little at the lower end though for the most part indeed they are otherwise shap'd and taper'd towards the end the generation of which seems to be from no other reason but this that the water by soaking through the earth and Lime for I ghess that substance to add much to it petrifying quality does so impregnate it self with stony particles that hanging in drops in the roof of the Vault by reason that the soaking of the water is but slow it becomes expos'd to the Air and thereby the outward part of the drop by degrees grows hard by reason that the water gradually
the Stuff lasts Hence it may appear to any one that attentively considers the Figure why the parts of the wale a a a a a a should appear bright and why the parts b b b b b b should appear shadowed or dark why some as d d d d d d should appear partly light and partly dark the varieties of which reflections and shadows are the only cause of the appearance of watering in Silks or any other kind of Stuffs From the variety of reflection may also be deduc'd the cause why a small breez or gale of wind ruffling the surface of a smooth water makes it appear black as also on the other side why the smoothing or burnishing the surface of whitened Silver makes it look back and multitudes of other phaenomena might hereby be solv'd which are too many to be here insisted on Observ. VI. Of small Glass Canes THat I might be satisfi'd whether it were not possible to make an Artificial pore as small as any Natural I had yet found I made several attemps with small glass pâ—pes melted in the flame of a Lamp and then very suddenly drawn out into a great length And by that means without much difficulty I was able to draw some almost as small as a Cobweb which yet with the Microscope I could plainly perceive to be perforated both by looking on the ends of it and by looking on it against the light which was much the easier way to determine whether it were solid or perforated for taking a small pipe of glass and closing one end of it then filling it half full of water and holding it against the light I could by this means very easily find what was the differing aspect of a solid and a perforated piece of glass and so easily distinguish without seeing either end whether any Cylinder of glass I look'd on were a solid stick or a hollow cane And by this means I could also presently judge of any small filament of glass whether it were hollow or not which would have been exceeding tedious to examine by looking on the end And many such like ways I was fain to make use of in the examining of divers other particulars related in this Book which would have been no easie task to have determined meerly by the more common way of looking on or viewing the Object For if we consider first the very faint light wherewith the object is enlightened whence many particles appear opacous which when more enlightned appear very transparent so that I was fain to determine its transparency by one glass and its texture by another Next the unmanageableness of most Objects by reason Schem IIII of their smalness 3. The difficulty of finding the desired point and of placing it so as to reflect the light conveniently for the Inquiry Lastly ones being able to view it but with one eye at once they will appear no small obstructions nor are they easily remov'd without many contrivances But to proceed I could not find that water or some deeply ting'd liquors would in small ones rise so high as one would expect and the highest I have found it yet rise in any of the pipes I have try'd was to 21 inches above the level of the water in the vessel for though I found that in the small pipes it would nimbly enter at first and run about 6 or 7 inches upwards yet I found it then to move upwards so slow that I have not yet had the patience to observe it above that height of 21 inches and that was in a pretty large Pipe in comparison of those I formerly mentioned for I could observe the progress of a very deep ting'd liquor in it with my naked eye without much trouble whereas many of the other pipes were so very small that unless in a convenient posture to the light I could not perceive them But 't is very probable that a greater patience and assiduity may discover the liquors to rise at least to remain suspended at heights that I should be loath now even to ghess at if at least there be any proportion kept between the height of the ascending liquor and the bigness of the holes of the pipes An Attempt for the Explication of this Experiment My Conjecture That the unequal height of the surfaces of the water proceeded from the greater pressure made upon the water by the Air without the Pipes ABC then by that within them I shall endeavour to confirm from the truth of the two following Propositions The first of which is That an unequal pressure of the incumbent Air will cause an unequal height in the water's Surfaces And the second is That in this experiment there is such an unequal pressure That the first is true the following Experiment will evince For if you take any Vessel so contrived as that you can at pleasure either increase or diminish the pressure of the Air upon this or that part of the Superficies of the water the equality of the height of those parts will presently be lost and that part of the Superficies that sustains the greater pressure will be inferior to that which undergoes the less A fit Vessel for this purpose will be an inverted Glass Syphon such an one as is described in the Sixth Figure For if into it you put Water enough to fill it as high as AB and gently blow in at D you shall depress the Superficies B and thereby raise the opposite Superficies A to a considerable height and by gently sucking you may produce clean contrary effects Next That there is such an unequal pressure I shall prove from this That there is a much greater incongruity of Air to Glass and some other Bodies then there is of Water to the same By Congruity I mean a property of a fluid Body whereby any part of it is readily united with any other part either of it self or of any other Similar fluid or solid body And by Incongruity a property of a fluid by which it is hindred from uniting with any dissimilar fluid or solid Body This last property any one that hath been observingly conversant about fluid Bodies cannot be ignorant of For not now to mention several Chymical Spirits and Oyls which will very hardly if at all be brought to mix with one another insomuch that there may be found some 8 or 9 or more several distinct Liquors which swimming one upon another will not presently mix we need seek no further for Examples of this kind in fluids then to observe the drops of rain falling through the air and the bubbles of air which are by any means conveyed under the surface of the water or a drop of common Sallet Oyl swimming upon water In all which and many more examples of this kind that might be enumerated the incongruity of two fluids is easily discernable And as for the Congruity or Incongruity of Liquids with several kinds of firm Bodies they have long since been taken notice of and
been yet found any thing perfectly cold Nor can I believe indeed that there is any such thing in Nature as a body whose particles are at rest or lazy and unactive in the great Theatre of the World it being quite contrary to the grand Oeconomy of the Universe We see therefore what is the reason of the Sympathy or uniting of some bodies together and of the antipathy or flight of others from each other For Congruity seems nothing else but a Sympathy and Incongruity an Antipathy of bodies hence similar bodies once united will not easily part and dissimilar bodies once disjoyn'd will not easily unite again from hence may be very easily deduc'd the reason of the suspension of water and Quick-silver above their usual station as I shall more at large anon shew These properties therefore alwayes the concomitants of fluid bodies produce these following visible Effects First They unite the parts of a fluid to its similar Solid or keep them separate from its dissimilar Hence Quick-silver will as we noted before stick to Gold Silver Tin Lead c. and unite with them but roul off from Wood Stone Glass c. if never so little scituated out of its horizontal level and water that will wet salt and dissolve it will slip off from Tallow or the like without at all adhering as it may likewise be observed to do upon a dusty superficies And next they cause the parts of homogeneal fluid bodies readily to adhere together and mix and of heterogeneal to be exceeding averse thereunto Hence we find that two small drops of water on any superficies they can roul on will if they chance to touch each other readily unite and mix into one 3d. drop The like may be observed with two small Bowls of Quick-silver upon a Table or Glass provided their surfaces be not dusty and with two drops of Oyl upon fair water c. And further water put unto wine salt water vinegar spirit of wine or the like does immediately especially if they be shaken together disperse it self all over them Hence on the contrary we also find that Oyl of Tartar poured upon Quick-silver and Spirit of Wine on that Oyl of Turpentine on that Spirit and Air upon that Oyl though they be stopt closely up into a Bottle and shaken never so much they will by no means long suffer any of their bigger parts to be united or included within any of the other Liquors by which recited Liquors may be plainly enough represented the four Peripatetical Elements and the more subtil Aether above all From this property 't is that a drop of water does not mingle with or vanish into Air but is driven by that Fluid equally protruding it on every side and forc't into as little a space as it 〈◊〉 possibly be contained in namely into a Round Globule So likewise a title Air blown under the water is united or thrust into a Bubble by the ambient water And a parcel of Quick-silver enclosed with Air Water or almost any other Liquor is formed into a round Ball. Now the cause why all these included Fluids newly mentioned or as many others as are wholly included within a heterogeneous fluid are not exactly of a Spherical Figure seeing that if caused by these Principles only it could be of no other must proceed from some other kind of pressure against the two opposite flatted sides This adventitious or accidental pressure may proceed from divers causes and accordingly must diversifie the Figure of the included heterogeneous fluid For seeing that a body may be included either with a fluid only or only with a solid or partly with a fluid and partly with a solid or partly with one fluid and partly with another there will be found a very great variety of the terminating surfaces much differing from a Spherical according to the various resistance or pressure that belongs to each of those encompassing bodies Which Properties may in general be deduced from two heads viz. Motion and Rest. For either this Globular Figure is altered by a natural Motion such as is Gravity or a violent such as is any accidental motion of the fluids as we see in the wind ruffling up the water and the purlings of Streams and foaming of Catarracts and the like Of thirdly By the Rest Firmness and Stability of the ambient Solid For if the including Solid be of an angular or any other irregular Form the included fluid will be near of the like as a Pint Pot full of water or a Bladder full of Air. And next if the including or included fluid have a greater gravity one than another then will the globular Form be deprest into an Elliptico-Spherical As if for example we suppose the Circle ABCD in the fourth Figure to represent a drop of water Quick-silver or the like included with the Air or the like which supposing there were no gravity at all in either of the fluids or that the contained and containing were of the same weight would be equally comprest into an exactly Spherical body the ambient fluid forcing equally against every side of it But supposing either a greater gravity in the included by reason whereof the parts of it being prest from A towards B and thereby the whole put into motion and that motion being hindred by the resistance of the subjacent parts of the ambient the globular Figure ADBC will be deprest into the Ellipticospherical EGFH For the side A is detruded to E by the Gravity and B to F by the resistance of the subjacent medium and therefore C must neccessarily be thrust to G and D to H. Or else supposing a greater gravity in the ambient by whose more then ordinary pressure against the under side of the included globule E will be forced to F and by its resistance of the motion upwards the side A will be deprest to E and therefore C being thrust to G and D to H the globular Figure by this means also will be made an Elliptico-Spherical Next if a fluid be included partly with one and partly with another fluid it will be found to be shaped diversly according to the proportion of the gravity and incongruity of the 3 fluids one to another As in the Second Figure let the upper MMM be Air the middle LMNO be common Oyl the lower OOO be Water the Oyl will be form'd not into a Spherical Figure such as is represented by the pricked Line but into such a Figure as LMNO whose side LMN will be of a flatter Elliptical Figure by reason of the great disproportion between the Gravity of Oyl and Air and the side LOM of a rounder because of the smaller difference between the weight of Oyl and Water Lastly The globular Figure will be changed if the ambient be partly fluid and partly solid And here the termination of the incompassed fluid towards the incompassing is shap'd according to the proportion of the congruity or incongruity of the fluids to the solids and
perceive the perforation with ones naked eye though by the help of a Microscope it may easily enough be perceived Nay I have made a Pipe perforated from end to end so small that with my naked eye I could very hardly see the body of it insomuch that I have been able to knit it up into a knot without breaking And more accurately examining one with my Microscope I found it not so big as a sixteenth part of one of the smaller hairs of my head which was of the smaller and finer sort of hair so that sixteen of these Pipes bound faggot-wiâ—e together would but have equalized one single hair how small therefore must its perforation be It appearing to me through the Microscope to be a proportionably thick-sided Pipe To proceed then for the trial of the Experiment the Experimenter must place the Tube AB perpendicular and fill the Pipe F cemented into the hole E with water but leave the bubble C full of Air and then gently pouring in water into the Pipe AB he must observe diligently how high the water will rise in it before it protrude the bubble of Air C through the narrow passage of F and denote exactly the height of the Cylinder of water then cementing in a second Pipe as G and filling it with water he may proceed as with the former denoting likewise the height of the Cylinder of water able to protrude the bubble C through the passage of G the like may he do with the next Pipe and the next c. as far as he is able then comparing the several heights of the Cylinders with the several holes through which each Cylinder did force the air having due regard to the Cylinders of water in the small Tubes it will be very easie to determine what force is requisite to press the Air into such and such a hole or to apply it to our present experiment how much of the pressure of the Air is taken off by its ingress into smaller and smaller holes From the application of which to the entring of the Air into the bigger hole of the Vessel and into the smaller hole of the Pipe we shall clearly find that there is a greater pressure of the air upon the water in the Vessel or greater pipe then there is upon that in the lesser pipe For since the pressure of the air every way is found to be equal that is as much as is able to press up and sustain a Cylinder of Quicksilver of two foot and a half high or thereabouts And since of this pressure so many more degrees are required to force the Air into a smaller then into a greater hole that is full of a more congruous fluid And lastly since those degrees that are requisite to press it in are thereby taken off from the Air within and the Air within left with so many degrees of pressure less then the Air without it will follow that the Air in the less Tube or pipe will have less pressure against the superficies of the water therein then the Air in the bigger which was the minor Proposition to be proved The Conclusion therefore will necessarily follow viz. That this unequal pressure of the Air caused by its ingress into unequal holes is a cause sufficient to produce this effect without the help of any other concurrent and therefore is probably the principal if not the only cause of these Phaenomena This therefore being thus explained there will be divers Phaenomena explicable thereby as the rising of Liquors in a Filtre the rising of Spirit of Wine Oyl melted Tallow c. in the Week of a Lamp though made of small Wire Threeds of Asbestus Strings of Glass or the like the rising of Liquors in a Spunge piece of Bread Sand c. perhaps also the ascending of the Sap in Trees and Plants through their small and some of them imperceptible pores of which I have said more on another occasion at least the passing of it out of the earth into their roots And indeed upon the consideration of this Principle multitudes of other uses of it occurr'd to me which I have not yet so well examined and digested as to propound for Axioms but only as Queries and Conjectures which may serve as hints toward some further discoveries As first Upon the consideration of the congruity and incongruity of Bodies as to touch I found also the like congruity and incongruity if I may so speak as to the Transmitting of the Raies of Light For as in this regard water not now to mention other Liquors seems nearer of affinity to Glass then Air and Air then Quicksilver whence an oblique Ray out of Glass will pass into water with very little refraction from the perpendicular but none out of Glass into Air excepting a direct will pass without a very great refraction from the perpendicular nay any oblique Ray under thirty degrees will not be admitted into the Air at all And Quicksilver will neither admit oblique or direct but reflects all seeming as to the transmitting of the Raies of Light to be of a quite differing constitution from that of Air Water Glass c. and to resemble most those opacous and strong reflecting bodies of Metals So also as to the property of cohesion or congruity Water seems to keep the same order being more congruous to Glass then Air and Air then Quicksilver A Second thing which was hinted to me by the consideration of the included fluids globular form caused by the protrusion of the ambient heterogeneous fluid was whether the Phaenomena of gravity might not by this means be explained by supposing the Globe of Earth Water and Air to be included with a fluid heterogeneous to all and each of them so subtil as not only to be every where interspersed through the Air or rather the air through it but to pervade the bodies of Glass and even the closest Metals by which means it may endeavour to detrude all earthly bodies as far from it as it can and partly thereby and partly by other of its properties may move them towards the Center of the Earth Now that there is some such fluid I could produce many Experiments and Reasons that do seem to prove it But because it would ask some time and room to set them down and explain them and to consider and answer all the Objections many whereof I foresee that may be alledged against it I shall at present proceed to other Queries contenting my self to have here only given a hint of what I may say more elswhere A Third Query then was Whether the heterogeneity of the ambient fluid may not be accounted a secondary cause of the roundness or globular form of the greater bodies of the world such as are those of the Sun Stars and Planets the substance of each of which seems altogether heterogeneous to the circum-ambient fluid aether And of this I shall say more in the Observation of the Moon A Fourth was
Whether the globular form of the smaller parcels of matter here upon the Earth as that of Fruits Pebbles or Flints c. which seem to have been a Liquor at first may not be caused by the heterogeneous ambient fluid For thus we see that melted Glass will be naturally formed into a round Figure so likewise any small Parcel of any fusible body if it be perfectly enclosed by the Air will be driven into a globular Form and when cold will be found a solid Ball. This is plainly enough manifested to us by their way of making shot with the drops of Lead which being a very pretty curiosity and known but to a very few and having the liberty of publishing it granted me by that Eminent Virtuoso Sir Robert Moray who brought in this Account of it to the Royal Society I have here transcribed and inserted To make small shot of different sizes Communicated by his Highness P. R. TAke Lead out of the Pig what quantity you please melt it down stir and clear it with an iron Ladle gathering together the blackish parts that swim at top like scum and when you see the colour of the clear Lead to be greenish but no sooner strew upon it Auripigmentum powdered according to the quantity of Lead about as much as will lye upon a half Crown piece will serve for eighteen or twenty pound weight of some sorts of Lead others will require more or less After the Auripigmentum is put in stir the Lead well and the Auripigmentum will flame when the flame is over take out some of the Lead in a Ladle having a lip or notch in the brim for convenient pouring out of the Lead and being well warmed amongst the melted Lead and with a stick make some single drops of Lead trickle out of the Ladle into water in a Glass which if they fall to be round and without tails there is Auripigmentum enough put in and the temper of the heat is right otherwise put in more Then lay two bars of Iron or some more proper Iron-tool made on purpose upon a Pail of water and place upon them a round Plate of Copper of the size and figure of an ordinary large Pewter or Silver Trencher the hollow whereof is to be about three inches over the bottom lower then the brims about half an inch pierced with thirty forty or more small holes the smaller the holes are the smaller the shot will be and the brim is to be thicker then the bottom to conserve the heat the better The bottom of the Trencher being some four inches distant frum the water in the Pail lay upon it some burning Coles to keep the Lead melted upon it Then with the hot Ladle take Lead off the Pot where it stands melted and pour it softly upon the burning Coles over the bottom of the Trencher and it will immediately run through the holes into the water in small round drops Thus pour on new Lead still as fast as it runs through the Trencher till all be done blowing now and then the Coles with hand-Bellows when the Lead in the Trencher cools so as to stop from running Whilst one pours on the Lead another must with another Ladle thrusted four or five inches under water in the Pail catch from time to time some of the shot as it drops down to see the size of it and whether there be any faults in it The greatest care is to keep the Lead upon the Trencher in the right degree of heat if it be too cool it will not run through the Trencher though it stand melted upon it and this is to be helped by blowing the Coals a little or pouring on new Lead that is hotter but the cooler the Lead the larger the Shot and the hotter the smaller when it is too hot the drops will crack and fly then you must stop pouring on new Lead and let it cool and so long as you observe the right temper of the heat the Lead will constantly drop into very round Shot without so much as one with a tail in many pounds When all is done take your Shot out of the Pail of water and put it in a Frying-pan over the fire to dry them which must be done warily still shaking them that they melt not and when they are dry you may separate the small from the great in Pearl Sives made of Copper or Lattin let into one another into as many sizes as you please But if you would have your Shot larger then the Trencher makes them you may do it with a Stick making them trickle out of the Ladle as hath been said If the Trencher be but toucht a very little when the Lead stops from going through it and be not too cool it will drop again but it is better not to touch it at all At the melting of the Lead take care that there be no kind of Oyl Grease or the like upon the Pots or Ladles or Trencher The Chief cause of this Globular Figure of the Shot seems to be the Auripigmentum for as soon as it is put in among the melted Lead it loses its shining brightness contracting instantly a grayish film or skin upon it when you scum it to make it clean with the Ladle So that when the Air comes at the falling drop of the melted Lead that skin constricts them every where equally but upon what account and whether this be the true cause is left to further disquisition Much after this same manner when the Air is exceeding cold through which it passes do we find the drops of Rain falling from the Clouds congealed into round Hail-stones by the freezing Ambient To which may be added this other known Experiment That if you gently let fall a drop of water upon small sand or dust you shall find as it were an artificial round stone quickly generated I cannot upon this occasion omit the mentioning of the strange kind of Grain which I have observed in a stone brought from Kettering in Northamptonshire and therefore called by Masons Kettering-Stone of which see the Description Which brings into my mind what I long since observed in the fiery Sparks that are struck out of a Steel For having a great desire to see what was left behind after the Spark was gone out I purposely struck fire over a very white piece of Paper and observing diligently where some conspicuous sparks went out I found a very little black spot no bigger then the point of a Pin which through a Microscope appeared to be a perfectly round Ball looking much like a polisht ball of Steel insomuch that I was able to see the Image of the window reflected from it I cannot here stay having done it more fully in another place to examine the particular Reasons of it but shall only hint that I imagine it to be some small parcel of the Steel which by the violence of the motion of the stroke most of which seems to be imprest upon
quarter from any side and you shall perceive it by degrees to make perpendicularly toward the nearest part of the side and the nearer it approaches the faster to be moved the reason of which Phaenomenon will be found no other then this that the Air has a greater pressure against the middle of the superficies then it has against those parts that approach nearer and are contiguous to the sides Now that the pressure is greater may as I shewed before in the explication of the third Figure be evinced from the flatting of the water in the middle which arises from the gravity of the under fluid for since as I shewed before if there were no gravity in the under fluid or that it were equal to that of the upper the terminating Surface would be spherical and since it is the additional pressure of the gravity of water that makes it so flat it follows that the pressure upon the middle must be greater then towards the sides Hence the Ball having a stronger pressure against that side of it which respects the middle of the superficies then against that which respects the approximate side must necessarily move towards that part from whence it finds least resistance and so be accelerated as the resistance decreases Hence the more the water is raised under that part of its way it is passing above the middle the faster it is moved And therefore you will find it to move faster in E then in D and in D then in C. Neither could I find the floating substance to be moved at all until it were placed upon some part of the Superficies that was sensibly elevated above the height of the middle part Now that this may be the true cause you may try with a blown Bladder and an exactly round Ball upon a very smooth side of some pliable body as Horn or Quicksilver For if the Ball be placed under a part of the Bladder which is upon one side of the middle of its pressure and you press strongly against the Bladder you shall find the Ball moved from the middle towards the sides Having therefore shewn the reason of the motion of any float towards the sides the reason of the incursion of any two floating bodies will easily appear For the rising of the water against the sides of either of them is an Argument sufficient to shew the pressure of the Air to be there less then it is further from it where it is not so much elevated and therefore the reason of the motion of the other toward it will be the same as towards the side of the Glass only here from the same reason they are mutually moved toward each other whereas the side of the Glass in the former remains fixt If also you gently fill the Jar so full with water that the water is protuberant above the sides the same piece of Cork that before did hasten towards the sides does now fly from it as fast towards the middle of the Superficies the reason of which will be found no other then this that the pressure of the Air is stronger against the sides of the Superficies G and H then against the middle I for since as I shewed before the Principle of congruity would make the terminating Surface Spherical and that the flatting of the Surface in the middle is from the abatement of the waters pressure outwards by the contrary indeavour of its gravity it follows that the pressure in the middle must be less then on the sides and therefore the consecution will be the same as in the former It is very odd to one that considers not the reason of it to see two floating bodies of wood to approach each other as though they were indued with some magnetical vigour which brings into my mind what I formerly tried with a piece of Cork or such like body which I so ordered that by putting a little stick into the same water one part of the said Cork would approach and make toward the stick whereas another would discede and fly away nay it would have a kind of verticity so as that if the Aequator as I may so speak of the Cork were placed towards the stick if let alone it would instantly turn its appropriate Pole toward it and then run a-tilt at it and this was done only by taking a dry Cork and wetting one side of it with one small stroak for by this means gently putting it upon the water it would depress the superficies on every side of it that was dry and therefore the greatest pressure of the Air being near those sides caused it either to chase away or else to fly off from any other floating body whereas that side only against which the water ascended was thereby able to attract It remains only that I should determine how high the Water or other Liquor may by this means be raised in a smaller Pipe above the Superficies of that without it and at what height it may be sustained But to determine this will be exceeding difficult unless I could certainly know how much of the Airs pressure is taken off by the smallness of such and such a Pipe and whether it may be wholly taken off that is whether there can be a hole or pore so small into which Air could not at all enter though water might with its whole force for were there such 't is manifest that the water might rise in it to some five or six and thirty English Foot high I know not whether the capillary Pipes in the bodies of small Trees which we call their Microscopical pores may not be such and whether the congruity of the sides of the Pore may not yet draw the juyce even higher then the Air was able by its bare pressure to raise it For Congruity is a principle that not only unites and holds a body joyned to it but which is more attracts and draws a body that is very near it and holds it above its usual height And this is obvious even in a drop of water suspended under any Similar or Congruous body For besides the ambient pressure that helps to keep it sustein'd there is the Congruity of the bodies that are contiguous This is yet more evident in Tenacious and Glutinous bodies such as Gummous Liquors Syrups Pitch and Rosin melted c. Tar Turpentine Balsom Bird-lime c. for there it is evident that the Parts of the tenacious body as I may so call it do stick and adhere so closely together that though drawn out into long and very slender Cylinders yet they will not easily relinquish one another and this though the bodies be aliquatenus fluid and in motion by one another which to such as consider a fluid body only as its parts are in a confused irregular motion without taking in also the congruity of the parts one among another and incongruity to some other bodies does appear not a little strange So that besides the incongruity of the ambient
his 40. Experiment precipitates with oyl of Tartar per deliquium into an Orange colour'd precipitate nor is it less probable that the calcination of those Vitriols by the fire should have their particles transparent Thus Saccarum Saturni or the Vitriol of Lead by calcination becomes a deep Orange-colour'd minium which is a kind of precipitation by some Salt which proceeds from the fire common Vitriol calcin'd yields a deep Brown Red c. A third Argument that the particles of Metals are transparent is that being calcin'd and melted with Glass they tinge the Glass with transparent colours Thus the Calx of Silvertinges the Glass on which it is anneal'd with a lovely Yellow or Gold colour c. And that the parts of Metals are transparent may be farther argued from the transparency of Leaf-gold which held against the light both to the naked eye and the Microscope exhibits a deep Green And though I have never seen the other Metals laminated so thin that I was able to perceive them transparent yet for Copper and Brass if we had the same conveniency for laminating them as we have for Gold we might perhaps through such plates or leaves find very differing degrees of Blue or Green for it seems very probable that those Rays that rebound from them ting'd with a deep Yellow or pale Red as from Copper or with a pale Yellow as from Brass have past through them for I cannot conceive how by reflection alone those Rays can receive a tincture taking any Hypothesis extant So that we see there may a sufficient reason be drawn from these instances why those colours which we are unable to dilute to the palest Yellow or Blue or Green are not therefore to be concluded not to be a deeper degree of them for supposing we had a great company of small Globular essence Bottles or round Glass bubbles about the bigness of a Walnut fill'd each of them with a very deep mixture of Saffron and that every one of them did appear of a deep Scarlet colour and all of them together did exhibit at a distance a deep dy'd Scarlet body It does not follow because after we have come nearer to this congeries or mass and divided it into its parts and examining each of its parts severally or apart we find them to have much the same colour with the whole mass it does not I say therefore follow that if we could break those Globules smaller or any other ways come to see a smaller or thinner parcel of the ting'd liquor that fill'd those bubbles that that ting'd liquor must always appear Red or of a Scarlet hue since if Experiment be made the quite contrary will ensue for it is capable of being diluted into the palest Yellow Now that I might avoid all the Objections of this kind by exhibiting an Experiment that might by ocular proof convince those whom other reasons would not prevail with I provided me a Prismatical Glass made hollow just in the form of a Wedge such as is represented in the tenth Figure of the sixth Scheme The two parallelogram sides ABCD ABEF which met at a point were made of the clearest Looking-glass plates well ground and polish'd that I could get these were joyn'd with hard cement to the triangular sides BCE ADF which were of Wood the Parallelogram base BCEF likewise was of Wood joyn'd on to the rest with hard cement and the whole Prismatical Box was exactly stopt every where but onely a little hole near the base was left whereby the Vessel could be fill'd with any liquor or emptied again at pleasure One of these Boxes for I had two of them I fill'd with a pretty deep tincture of Aloes drawn onely with fair Water and then stopt the hole with a piece of Wax then by holding this Wedge against the Light and looking through it it was obvious enough to see the tincture of the liquor near the edge of the Wedge where it was but very thin to be a pale but well colour'd Yellow and further and further from the edge as the liquor grew thicker and thicker this tincture appear'd deeper and deeper so that near the blunt end which was seven Inches from the edge and three Inches and an half thick it was of a deep and well colour'd Red. Now the clearer and purer this tincture be the more lovely will the deep Scarlet be and the fouler the tincture be the more dirty will the Red appear so that some dirty tinctures have afforded their deepest Red much of the colour of burnt Oker or Spanish brown others as lovely a colour as Vermilion and some much brighter but several others according as the tinctures were worse or more foul exhibited various kinds of Reds of very differing degrees The other of these Wedges I fill'd with a most lovely tincture of Copper drawn from the filings of it with spirit of Vrine and this Wedge held as the former against the Light afforded all manner of Blues from the faintest to the deepest so that I was in good hope by these two to have produc'd all the varieties of colours imaginable for I thought by this means to have been able by placing the two Parallelogram sides together and the edges contrary ways to have so mov'd them to and fro one by another as by looking through them in several places and through several thicknesses I should have compounded and consequently have seen all those colours which by other like compositions of colours would have ensued But insteed of meeting with what I look'd for I met with somewhat more admirable and that was that I found my self utterly unable to see through them when placed both together though they were transparent enough when asunder and though I could see through twice the thickness when both of them were fill'd with the same colour'd liquors whether both with the Yellow or both with the Blue yet when one was fill'd with the Yellow the other with the Blue and both looked through they both appear'd dark onely when the parts near the tops were look'd through they exhibited Greens and those of very great variety as I expected but the Purples and other colours I could not by any means make whether I endeavour'd to look through them both against the Sun or whether I plac'd them against the hole of a darkned room But notwithstanding this mis-ghessing I proceeded on with my trial in a dark room and having two holes near one another I was able by placing my Wedges against them to mix the ting'd Rays that past through them and fell on a sheet of white Paper held at a convenient distance from them as I pleas'd so that I could make the Paper appear of what colour I would by varying the thicknesses of the Wedges and consequently the tincture of the Rays that past through the two holes and sometimes also by varying the Paper that is insteed of a white Paper holding a gray or a black piece of Paper Whence I
Their bigness and Figure may be seen in the second Figure of the sixth Plate which represents about a dozen of them lying upon a plate ABCD some of which as a b c d seem'd more regular than the rest and e which was a small one fricking on the top of another was a perfect Rhomboeid on the top and had four Rectagular sides The line E which was the measure of the Microscope is 1 3â— part of an English Inch so that the greatest bredth of any of them exceeded not 1 12â— part of an Inch. Putting these into several liquors I found Oyl of Vitriul Spirit of Vrine and several other Satine menstruâ—ms to dissolve them and the first of these in less than a minute without Ebullition Water and several other liquors had no sudden operation upon them This I mention because those liquors that dissolve them first make them very white not vitiating but rather rectifying their Figure and thereby make them afford a very pretty object for the Microscope How great an advantage it would be to such as are troubled with the Stone to find some menstruum that might dissolve them without hurting the Bladder is easily imagin'd since some injections made of such bodies might likewise dissolve the stone which seems much of the same nature It may therefore perhaps be worthy some Physicians enquiry whether there may not be something mixt with the Urine in which the Gravel or Stone lies which may again make it dissolve it the first of which seems by it's regular Figures to have been sometimes Crystalliz'd out of it For whether this Crystallization be made in the manner as Alum Peter c. are crystallized out of a cooling liquor in which by boyling they have been dissolv'd or whether it be made in the manner of Tartarum Vitriolatum that is by the Coalition of an acid and a Sulphureous substance it seems not impossible but that the liquor it lies in may be again made a dissolvent of it But leaving these inquiries to Physicians or Chymists to whom it does more properly belong I shall proceed Observ. XIII Of the small Diamants or Sparks in Flints CHancing to break a Flint stone in pieces I found within it a certain cavity all crusted over with a very pretty candied substance some of the parts of which upon changing the posture of the Stone in respect of the Incident light exhibited a number of small but very vivid reflections and having made use of my Microscope I could perceive the whole surface of that cavity to be all beset with a multitude of little Crystaline or Adamantine bodies so curiously shap'd that it afforded a not unpleasing object Having considered those vivid repercussions of light I found them to be made partly from the plain external surface of these regularly figured bodies which afforded the vivid reflections and partly to be made from within the somewhat pellucid body that is from some surface of the body opposite to that superficies of it which was next the eye And because these bodies were so small that I could not well come to make Experiments and Examinations of them I provided me several small stiriae of Crystals or Diamants found in great quantities in Cornwall and are therefore commonly called Cornish Diamants these being very pellucid and growing in a hollow cavity of a Rock as I have been several times informed by those that have observ'd them much after the same manner as these do in the Flint and having besides their outward surface very regularly shap'd retaining very near the same Figures with some of those I observ'd in the other became a convenient help to me for the Examination of the properties of those kinds of bodies And first for the Reflections in these I found it very observable That the brightest reflections of light proceeded from within the pellucid body that is that the Rays admitted through the pellucid substance in their getting out on the opposite side were by the contiguous and strong reflecting surface of the Air very vividly reflected so that more Rays were reflected to the eye by this surface though the Ray in entring and getting out of the Crystal had suffer'd a double refraction than there were from the outward surface of the Glass where the Ray had suffer'd no reftraction at all Sche VII And that this was the surface of the Air that gave so vivid a re-percussion I try'd by this means I sunk half of a stiria in Water so that only Water was contiguous to the under surface and then the internal reflection was so exceedingly faint that it was scarce discernable Again I try'd to alter this vivid reflection by keeping off the Air with a body not fluid and that was by rubbing and holding my finger very hard against the under surface so as in many places the pulp of my finger did touch the Glass without any interjacent air between then observing the reflection I found that wheresoever my finger or skin toucht the surface from that part there was no reflection but in the little furrows or creases of my skin where there remain'd little small lines of air from them was return'd a very vivid reflection as before I try'd further by making the surface of very pure Quicksilver to be contiguous to the under surface of this pellucid body and then the reflection from that was so exceedingly more vivid than from the air as the reflection from air was than the reflection from the Water from all which trials I plainly saw that the strong reflecting air was the cause of this Phaenomenon And this agrees very well with the Hypothesis of light and Pellucid bodies which I have mention'd in the description of Muscovy-glass for we there suppose Glass to be a medium which does less resist the pulse of light and consequently that most of the Rays incident on it enter into it and are refracted towards the perpendicular whereas the air I suppose to be a body that does more resist it and consequently more are re-percuss'd then do enter it the same kind of trials have I made with Crystallinâ— Glass with drops of fluid bodies and several other ways which do all seem to agree very exactly with this Theory So that from this Principle well establish'd we may deduce severall Corollaries not unworthy observation And the first is that it plainly appears by this that the production of the Rainbow is as much to be ascribed to the reflection of the concave surface of the air as to the refraction of the Globular drops this will be evidently manifest by these Experiments if you foliate that part of a Glass-ball that is to reflect an Iris as in the Cartesian Experiment above mention'd the reflections will be abundantly more strong and the colours more vivid and if that part of the surface be touch'd with Water scarce affords any sensible colour at all Next we learn that the great reason why pellucid bodies beaten small are white is from the
found in the middle of this great Case another smaller round Case between which two the interstices were fill'd with multitudes of stringie fibres which seem'd to suspend the lesser Case in the middle of the other which as farr as I was able to discern seem'd full of exceeding small white seeds much like the seed-bagg in the knop of a Carnation after the flowers have been two or three days or a week fallen off but this I could not so perfectly discern and therefore cannot positively affirm it After the seed was fallen away I found both the Case Stalk and Plant all grow red and wither and from other parts of the root continually to spring new branches or slips which by degrees increased and grew as bigg as the former seeded ripen'd shatter'd and wither'd I could not find that it observ'd any particular seasons for these several kinds of growth but rather found it to be springing mature ripe seedy and wither'd at all times of the year But I found it most to flourish and increase in warm and moist weather It gathers its nourishments for the most part out of some Lapidescent or other substance corrupted or chang'd from its former texture or substantial form for I have found it to grow on the rotten parts of Stone of Bricks of Wood of Bones of Leather c. It oft grows on the barks of several Trees spreading it self sometimes from the ground upwards and sometimes from some chink or cleft of the bark of the Tree which has some putrify'd substance in it but this seems of a distinct kind from that which I observ'd to grow on putrify'd inanimate bodies and rotten earth There are also great varieties of other kinds of Mosses which grow on Trees and several other Plants of which I shall here make no mention nor of the Moss growing on the skull of a dead man which much resembles that of Trees Whether this Plant does sometimes originally spring or rise out of corruption without any disseminated seed I have not yet made trials enough to be very much either positive or negative for as it seems very hard to conceive how the seed should be generally dispers'd into all parts where there is a corruption begun unless we may rationally suppose that this seed being so exceeding small and consequently exceeding light is thereby taken up and carried to and fro in the Air into every place and by the falling drops of rain is wash'd down out of it and so dispers'd into all places and there onely takes root and propagates where it finds a convenient soil or matrix for it to thrive in so if we will have it to proceed from corruption it is not less difficult to conceive First how the corruption of any Vegetable much less of any Stone or Brick should be the Parent of so curiously figur'd and so perfect a Plant as this is But here indeed I cannot but add that it seems rather to be a product of the Rain in those bodies where it is stay'd then of the very bodies themselves since I have found it growing on Marble and Flint but always the Microscope if not the naked eye would discover some little hole of Dirt in which it was rooted Next how the corruption of each of those exceedingly differing bodies should all conspire to the production of the same Plant that is that Stones Bricks Wood or vegetable substances and Bones Leather Horns or animate substances unless we may with some plausibleness say that Air and Water are the coadjutors or menstruums in all kinds of putrifactions and that thereby the bodies though whil'st they retain'd their substantial forms were of exdceeing differing natures yet since they are dissolv'd and mixt into another they may be very Homogeneous they being almost resolv'd again into Air Water and Earth retaining perhaps one part of their vegetative faculty yet entire which meeting with congruous assistants such as the heat of the Air and the fluidity of the Water and such like coadjutors and conveniences acquires a certain vegetation for a time wholly differing perhaps from that kind of vegetation it had before To explain my meaning a little better by a gross Similitude Suppose a curious piece of Clock-work that had had several motions and contrivances in it which when in order would all have mov'd in their design'd methods and Periods We will further suppose by some means that this Clock comes to be broken brused or otherwise disordered so that several parts of it being dislocated are impeded and so stand still and not onely hinder its own progressive motion and produce not the effect which they were design'd for but because the other parts also have a dependence upon them put a stop to their motion likewise and so the whole Instrument becomes unserviceable and not fit for any use This Instrument afterwards by some shaking and tumbling and throwing up and down comes to have several of its parts shaken out and several of its curious motions and contrivances and particles all fallen asunder here a Pin falls out and there a Pillar and here a Wheel and there a Hammer and a Spring and the like and among the rest away falls those parts also which were brused and disorder'd and had all this while impeded the motion of all the rest hereupon several of those other motions that yet remain whose springs were not quite run down being now at liberty begin each of them to move thus or thus but quite after another method then before there being many regulating parts and the like fallen away and lost Upon this the Owner who chances to hear and observe some of these effects being ignorant of the Watch-makers Art wonders what is betid his Clock and presently imagines that some Artist has been at work and has set his Clock in order and made a new kind of Instrument of it but upon examining circumstances he finds there was no such matter but that the casual slipping out of a Pin had made several parts of his Clock fall to pieces and that thereby the obstacle that all this while hindred his Clock together with other usefull parts were fallen out and so his Clock was set at liberty And upon winding up those springs again when run down he finds his Clock to go but quite after another manner then it was wont heretofore And thus may it be perhaps in the business of Moss and Mould and Mushroms and several other spontaneous kinds of vegetations which may be caus'd by a vegetative principle which was a coadjutor to the life and growth of the greater Vegetable and was by the destroying of the life of it stopt and impeded in performing its office but afterwards upon a further corruption of several parts that had all the while impeded it the heat of the Sun winding up as it were the spring sets it again into a vegetative motion and this being single and not at all regulated as it was before when a part of that
wreath'd lik a With the substance of it is very brittle when dry and it will very easily be broken from the husk on which it grows If you take one of these Grains and wet the Beard in Water you will presently see the small bended top to turn and move round as if it were sensible and by degrees if it be continued wet enough the joint or knee will streighten it self and if it be suffer'd to dry again it will by degrees move round another way and at length bend again into its former posture If it be view'd with an ordinary single Microscope it will appear like a small wreath'd Sprig with two clefts and if wet as before and then look'd on with this Microscope it will appear to unwreath it self and by degrees to streighten its knee and the two clefts will become streight and almost on opposite sides of the small cylindrical body If it be continued to be look'd a little longer with a Microscope it will within a little while begin to wreath it self again and soon after return to its former posture bending it self again neer the middle into a kind of knee or angle Several of those bodies I examin'd with larger Microscopes and there found them much of the make of those two long wreath'd cylinders delineated in the second Figure of the 15. Scheme which two cylinders represent the wreathed part broken into two pieces whereof the end AB is to be suppos'd to have join'd to the end CD so that EACF does represent the whole wreath'd part of the Beard and EG a small piece of the upper part of the Beard which is beyond the knee which as I had not room to insert so was it not very considerable either for its form or any known property but the under or wreathed part is notable for both As to its form it appear'd if it were look'd on side-ways almost like a Willow or a small tapering rod of Hazel the lower or bigger half of which onely is twisted round several times in some three in others more in others less according to the bigness and maturity of the Grain on which it grew and according to the driness and moisture of the ambient Air as I shall shew more at large by and by The whole outward Superficies of this Cylindrical body is curiously adorned or fluted with little channels and interjacent ridges or little protuberances between them which run the whole length of the Beard and are streight where the Beard is not twisted and wreath'd where it is just after the same manner each of those sides is beset pretty thick with small Brisles or Thorns somewhat in form resembling that of Porcupines Quills such as aaaaa in the Figure all whose points are directed like so many Turn-pikes towards the small end or top of the Beard which is the reason why if you endeavour to draw the Beard between your fingers the contrary way you will find it to stick and grate as it were against the skin The proportion of these small conical bodies aaaaa to that whereon they grow the Figure will sufficiently shew as also their manner of growing their thickness and neerness to each other as that towards the root or bottom of the Beard they are more thin and much shorter insomuch that there is usually left between the top of the one and the bottom of that next above it more then the length of one of them and that towards the top of the Beard they grow more thick and close though there be fewer ridges so that the root and almost half the upper are hid by the tops of those next below them I could not perceive any transverse pores unless the whole wreath'd part were separated and cleft in those little channels by the wreathing into so many little strings as there were ridges which was very difficult to determine but there were in the wreathed part two very conspicuous channels or clefts which were continued from the bottom F to the elbow EH or all along the part which was wreath'd which seem'd to divide the wreath'd Cylinder into two parts a bigger and a less the bigger was that which was at the convex side of the knee namely on the side A and was wreath'd by OOOOO this as it seem'd the broader so did it also the longer the other PPPPP which was usually purs'd or wrinckled in the bending of the knee as about E seem'd both the shorter and narrower so that at first I thought the wreathing and unwreathing of the Beard might have been caus'd by the shrinking or swelling of that part but upon further examination I found that the clefts KK LL were stuft up with a kind of Spongie substance which for the most part was very conspicuous neer the knee as in the cleft KK when the Beard was dry upon the discovery of which I began to think that it was upon the swelling of this porous pith upon the access of moisture or water that the Beard being made longer in the midst was streightned and by the shrinking or subsiding of the parts of that Spongie substance together when the water or moisture was exhal'd or dried the pith or middle parts growing shorter the whole became twisted But this I cannot be positive in for upon cutting the wreath'd part in many places transversly I was not so well satisfy'd with the shape and manner of the pores of the pith for looking on these transverse Sections with a very good Microscope I found that the ends of those transverse Sections appear'd much of the manner of the third Figure of the 15. Scheme ABCFE and the middle or pith CC seem'd very full of pores indeed but all of them seem'd to run the long-ways This Figure plainly enough shews in what manner those clefts K and L divided the wreath'd Cylinder into two unequal parts and also of what kind of substance the whole body consists for by cutting the same Beard in many places with transverse Sections I found much the same appearance with this express'd so that those pores seem to run as in most other such Cany bodies the whole length of it The clefts of this body KK and LL seem'd as is also express'd in the Figure to wind very oddly in the inner part of the wreath and in some parts of them they seem'd stuffed as it were with that Spongie substance which I just now described This so oddly constituted Vegetable substance is first that I have met with taken notice of by Baptista Porta in his Natural Magick as a thing known to children and Juglers and it has been call'd by some of those last named persons the better to cover their cheat the Legg of an Arabian Spider or the Legg of an inchanted Egyptian Fly and has been used by them to make a small Index Cross or the like to move round upon the wetting of it with a drop of Water and muttering certain words But the use that has been made of it for
I have almost thought my former observations deficient though indeed upon further examination I have found even those also to confirm them These threads therefore I find to be a congeries of small Laminae or plates as e e e e e c. each of them shap'd much like this of a b c d in the fourth Figure the part a c being a ridge prominency or stem and b and d the corners of two small thin Plates that grow unto the small stalk in the middle so that they make a kind of little feather each of these Plates lie one close to another almost like a company of sloping ridge or gutter Tyles they grow on each side of the stalk opposite to one another by two and two from top to bottom in the manner express'd in the fifth Figure the tops of the lower covering the roots of the next above them the under side of each of these laminated bodies is of a very dark and opacous substance and suffers very few Rays to be trajected but reflects them all toward that side from whence they come much like the foil of a Looking-glass but their upper â—ides seem to me to consist of a multitude of thin plated bodies which are exceeding thin and lie very close together and thereby like mother of Pearl shells do not onely reflect a very brisk light but tinge that light in a most curious manner and by means of various positions in respect of the light they reflect back now one colour and then another and those most vividly Now that these colours are onely fantastical ones that is such as arise immediately from the refractions of the light I found by this that water wetting these colour'd parts destroy'd their colours which seem'd to proceed from the alteration of the reflection and refraction Now though I was not able to see those hairs at all transparent by a common light yet by looking on them against the Sun I found them to be ting'd with a darkish red colour nothing a-kin to the curious and lovely greens and blues they exhibited What the reason of colour seems to be in such thin plated bodies I have elsewhere shewn But how water cast upon those threads destroys their colours I suppose to be perform'd thus The water falling upon these plated bodies from its having a greater congruity to Feathers then the Air insinuates it self between those Plates and so extrudes the strong reflecting Air whence both these parts grow more transparent as the Microscope informs and colourless also at best retaining a very faint and dull colour But this wet being wasted away by the continual evaporations and steams that pass through them from the Peacock whil'st that Bird is yet alive the colours again appear in their former luster the interstitia of these Plates being fill'd with the strongly reflecting Air. The beauteous and vivid colours of the Feathers of this Bird being found to proceed from the curious and exceeding smalness and fineness of the reflecting parts we have here the reason given us of all those gauderies in the apparel of other Birds also and how they come to exceed the colours of all other kinds of Animals besides Insects for since as we here and elsewhere also shew the vividness of a colour depends upon the fineness and transparency of the reflecting and refracting parts and since our Microscope discovers to us that the component parts of feathers are such and that the hairs of Animals are otherwise and since we find also by the Experiment of that Noble and most Excellent Person I formerly named that the difference between Silk and Flax as to its colour is nothing else for Flax reduc'd to a very great fineness of parts both white and colour'd appears as white and as vivid as any Silk but loses that brightness and its Silken aspect as soon as it is twisted into thread by reason that the component parts though very small and fine are yet pliable flakes and not cylinders and thence by twisting become united into one opacous body whereas the threads of Silk and Feathers retain their lustre by preserving their cylindrical form intire without mixing so that each reflected and refracted beam that composes the gloss of Silk preserves its own property of modulating the light intire And since we find the same confirm'd by many other Experiments elsewhere mentioned I think we may safely conclude this for an Axiome that wheresoever we meet with transparent bodies spun out into very fine parts either cleer or any ways ting'd the colours resulting from such a composition must necessarily be very glorious vivid and cleer like those of Silk and Feathers This may perhaps hint some usefull way of making other bodies besides Silk be susceptible of bright tinctures but of this onely by the by The changeable colour'd Feathers also of Ducks and several other Birds I have found by examination with my Microscope to proceed from much the same causes and textures Observ. XXXVII Of the Feet of Flies and several other Insects THe foot of a Fly delineated in the first Figure of the 23. Scheme which represents three joints the two Tallons and the two Pattens in a flat posture and in the second Figure of the same Scheme which represents onely one joint the Tallons and Pattens in another posture is of a most admirable and curious contrivance for by this the Flies are inabled to walk against the sides of Glass perpendicularly upwards and to contain themselves in that posture as long as they please nay to walk and suspend themselves against the under surface of many bodies as the ceiling of a room or the like and this with as great a seeming facility and firmness as if they were a kind of Antipodes and had a tendency upwards as we are sure they have the contrary which they also evidently discover in that they cannot make themselves so light as to stick or suspend themselves on the under surface of a Glass well polish'd and cleans'd their suspension therefore is wholly to be ascrib'd to some Mechanical contrivance in their feet which what it is we shall in brief explain by shewing that its Mechanism consists principally in two parts that is first its two Claws or Tallons and secondly two Palms Pattens or Soles The two Tallons are very large in proportion to the foot and handsomly shap'd in the manner describ'd in the Figures by AB and AC the bigger part of them from A to d d is all hairy or brisled but toward the top at C and B smooth the tops or points which seem very sharp turning downwards and inwards are each of them mov'd on a joint at A by which the Fly is able to open or shut them at pleasure so that the points B and C being entered in any pores and the Fly endeavouring to shut them the Claws not onely draw one against another and so fasten each other but they draw the whole foot GGADD forward so that on a soft
Animal surviv'd several motions in the head thorax and belly very distinctly of differing kinds which I may perhaps elsewhere endeavour more accurately to examine and to shew of how great benefit the use of a Microscope may be for the discovery of Nature's course in the operations perform'd in Animal bodies by which we have the opportunity of observing her through these delicate and pellucid teguments of the bodies of Insects acting according to her usual course and way undisturbed whereas when we endeavour to pry into her secrets by breaking open the doors upon her and dissecting and mangling creatures whil'st there is life yet within them we find her indeed at work but put into such disorder by the violence offer'd as it may easily be imagin'd how differing a thing we should find if we could as we can with a Microscope in these smaller creatures quietly peep in at the windows without frighting her out of her usual byas The form of the whole creature as it appear'd in the Microscope may without troubling you with more descriptions be plainly enough perceiv'd by the Scheme the hinder part or belly consisting of eight several jointed parts namely ABCDEFGH of the first Figure from the midst of each of which on either side issued out three or four small brisles or hairs I I I I I the tail was divided into two parts of very differing make one of them namely K having many tufts of hair or brisles which seem'd to serve both for the finns and tail for the Oars and Ruder of this little creature wherewith it was able by frisking and bending its body nimbly to and fro to move himself any whither and to skull and steer himself as he pleas'd the other part L seem'd to be as 't were the ninth division of his belly and had many single brisles on either side From the end V of which through the whole belly there was a kind of Gut of a darker colour MMM wherein by certain Peristaltick motions there was a kind of black substance mov'd upwards and downwards through it from the orbicular part of it N which seem'd the Ventricle or stomach to the tail V and so back again which peristaltick motion I have observ'd also in a Louse a Gnat and several other kinds of transparent body'd Flies The Thorax or chest of this creature OOOO was thick and short and pretty transparent for through it I could see the white heart which is the colour also of the bloud in these and most other Insects to beat and several other kind of motions It was bestuck and adorn'd up and down with several tufts of brisles such as are pointed out by P P P P the head Q was likewise bestuck with several of those tufts SSS it was broad and short had two black eyes TT which I could not perceive at all pearl'd as they afterwards appear'd and two small horns RR such as I formerly describ'd Schem XXVII The motion of it was with the tail forwards drawing its self backwards by the frisking to and fro of that tuft which grew out of one of the stumps of its tail It had another motion which was more sutable to that of other creatures and that is with the head forward for by the moving of his chaps if I may so call the parts of his mouth it was able to move it self downwards very gently towards the bottom and did as 't were eat up its way through the water But that which was most observable in this creature was its Metamorphosis or change for having kept several of these Animals in a Glass of Rain-water in which they were produc'd I found after about a fortnight or three weeks keeping that several of them flew away in Gnats leaving their husks behind them in the water floating under the surface the place where these Animals were wont to reside whil'st they were inhabitants of the water this made me more diligently to watch them to see if I could find them at the time of their transformation and not long after I observ'd several of them to be changed into an unusual shape wholly differing from that they were of before their head and body being grown much bigger and deeper but not broader and their belly or hinder part smaller and coyl'd about this great body much of the fashion represented by the prick'd line in the second Figure of the 27. Scheme the head and horns now swam uppermost and the whole bulk of the body seem'd to be grown much lighter for when by my frighting of it it would by frisking out of its tail in the manner express'd in the Figure by BC sink it self below the surface towards the bottom the body would more swiftly re-ascend then when it was in its former shape I still marked its progress from time to time and found its body still to grow bigger and bigger Nature as it were fitting and accoutring it for the lighter Element of which it was now going to be an inhabitant for by observing one of these with my Microscope I found the eyes of it to be altogether differing from what they seem'd before appearing now all over pearl'd or knobb'd like the eyes of Gnats as is visible in the secong Figure by A. At length I saw part of this creature to swim above and part beneath the surface of the water below which though it would quickly plunge it self if I by any means frighted it and presently re-ascend into its former posture after a little longer expectation I found that the head and body of a Gnat began to appear and stand cleer above the surface and by degrees it drew out its leggs first the two formost then the other at length its whole body perfect and entire appear'd out of the husk which it left in the water standing on its leggs upon the top of the water and by degrees it began to move and after flew about the Glass a perfect Gnat. I have been the more particular and large in the relation of the transformation of divers of these little Animals which I observ'd because I have not found that any Author has observ'd the like and because the thing it self is so strange and heterogeneous from the usual progress of other Animals that I judge it may not onely be pleasant but very usefull and necessary towards the compleating of Natural History There is indeed in Piso a very odd History which this relation may make the more probable and that is in the 2. Chapter of the 4. Book of his Natural History of Brasil where he says Porro praeter tot documenta fertilitatis circa vegetabilia sensitiva marina telluris aemula accidit illud quod paucis à Paranambucensi milliaribus piscatoris uncum citra intentionem contingat infigi vadis petrosis loco piscis spongia coralla aliasque arbusculas marinas capi Inter haec inusitatae formae prodit spongiosa arbuscula sesquipedis longitudinis brevioribus radicibus lapideis nitens
or any other creatures seeking and placing their Seeds in convenient repositories we may if we attentively consider and examine it find that there are circumstances sufficient upon the supposals of the excellent contrivance of their machine to excite and force them to act after such or such a manner those steams that rise from these several places may perhaps set several parts of these little Animals at work even as in the contrivance of killing a Fox or Wolf with a Gun the moving of a string is the death of the Animal for the Beast by moving the flesh that is laid to entrap him pulls the string which moves the trigger and that le ts go the Cock which on the steel strikes certain sparks of fire which kindle the powder in the pann and that presently flies into the barrel where the powder catching fire ratifies and drives out the bullet which kills the Animal in all which actions there is nothing of intention or ratiocination to be ascrib'd either to the Animal or Engine but all to the ingeniousness of the contriver But to return to the more immediate consideration of our Gnat We have in it an Instance not usual or common of a very stange amphibious creature that being a creature that inhabits the Air does yet produce a creature that for some time lives in the water as a Fish though afterward which is as strange it becomes an inhabitant of the Air like its Sire in the form of a Fly And this me thinks does prompt me to propose certain conjectures as Queries having not yet had sufficient opportunity and leisure to answer them my self from my own Experiments or Observations And the first is Whether all those things that we suppose to be bred from corruption and putrifaction may not be rationally suppos'd to have their origination as natural as these Gnats who 't is very probable were first dropt into this Water in the form of Eggs. Those Seeds or Eggs must certainly be very small which so small a creature as a Gnat yields and therefore we need not wonder that we find not the Eggs themselves some of the younger of them which I have observ'd having not exceeded a tenth part of the bulk they have afterwards come to and next I have observed some of those little ones which must have been generated after the Water was inclosed in the Bottle and therefore most probably from Eggs whereas those creatures have been suppos'd to be bred of the corruption of the Water there being not formerly known any probable way how they should be generated A second is whether these Eggs are immediately dropt into the Water by the Gnats themselves or mediately are brought down by the falling rain for it seems not very improbable but that those small seeds of Gnats may being perhaps of so light a nature and having so great a proportion of surface to so small a bulk of body be ejected into the Air and so perhaps carried for a good while too and fro in it till by the drops of Rain it be wash'd out of it A third is whether multitudes of those other little creatures that are found to inhabit the Water for some time do not at certain times take wing and fly into the Air others dive and hide themselves in the Earth and so contribute to the increase both of the one and the other Element Postscript A good while since the writing of this Description I was presented by Doctor Peter Ball an ingenious Member of the Royal Society with a little Paper of Nuts which he told me was sent him from a Brother of his out of the Countrey from Mamhead in Devonshire some of them were loose having been as I suppose broken off others were still growing fast on upon the sides of a stick which seem'd by the bark pliableness of it and by certain strings that grew out of it to be some piece of the root of a Tree they were all of them dry'd and a little shrivell'd others more round of a brown colour their shape was much like a Figg but very much smaller some being about the bigness of a Bay-berry others and the biggest of a Hazel-Nut Some of these that had no hole in them I carefully opened with my Knife and found in them a good large round white Maggot almost as bigg as a small Pea which seem'd shap'd like other Maggots but shorter I could not find them to move though I ghess'd them to be alive because upon pricking them with a Pinn there would issue out a great deal of white mucous matter which seem'd to be from a voluntary contraction of their skin their husk or matrix consisted of three Coats like the barks of Trees the outermost being more rough and spongie and the thickest the middlemost more close hard white and thin the innermost very thin seeming almost like the skin within an Egg 's shell The two outermost had root in the branch or stick but the innermost had no stem or process but was onely a skin that cover'd the cavity of the Nut. All the Nuts that had no holes eaten in them I found to contain these Maggots but all that had holes I found empty the Maggots it seems having eaten their way through taken wings and flown away as this following account which I receiv'd in writing from the same person as it was sent him by his Brother manifests In a moorish black Peaty mould with some small veins of whitish yellow Sands upon occasion of digging a hole two or three foot deep at the head of a Pond or Pool to set a Tree in at that depth were found about the end of October 1663. in those very veins of Sand those Buttons or Nuts sticking to a little loose stick that is not belonging to any live Tree and some of them also free by themselves Four or five of which being then open'd some were found to contvin live Insects come to perfection most like to flying Ants if not the same in others Insects yet imperfect having but the head and wings form'd the rest remaining a soft white pulpy substance Now as this furnishes us with one odd History more very agreeable to what I before hinted so I doubt not but were men diligent observers they might meet with multitudes of the same kind both in the Earth and in the Water and in the Air on Trees Plants and other Vegetables all places and things being as it were animarum plena And I have often with wonder and pleasure in the Spring and Summer-time look'd close to and diligently on common Garden mould and in a very small parcel of it found such multitudes and diversities of little reptiles some in husks others onely creepers many wing'd and ready for the Air divers husks or habitations left behind empty Now if the Earth of our cold Climate be so fertile of animate bodies what may we think of the fat Earth of hotter Climates Certainly the Sun may there by its
activity cause as great a parcel of Earth to fly on wings in the Air as it does of Water in steams and vapours And what swarms must we suppose to be sent out of those plentifull inundations of water which are poured down by the sluces of Rain in such vast quantities So that we need not much wonder at those innumerable clouds of Locusts with which Africa and other hot countries are so pestred since in those places are found all the convenient causes of their production namely genitors or Parents concurrent receptacles or matrixes and a sufficient degree of natural heat and moisture I was going to annex a little draught of the Figure of those Nuts sent out of Devonshire but chancing to examine Mr. Parkinson's Herbal for something else and particularly about Galls and Oak-apples I found among no less then 24. several kinds of excrescencies of the Oak which I doubt not but upon examination will be all found to be the matrixes of so many several kinds of Insects I having observ'd many of them my self to be so among 24. several kinds I say I found one described and Figur'd directly like that which I had by me the Scheme is there to be seen the description because but short I have here adjoin'd Theatri Botanici trib 16. Chap. 2. There groweth at the roots of old Oaks in the Spring-time and semetimes also in the very heat of Summer a peculiar kind of Mushrom or Excrescence call'd Uva Quercina swelling out of the Earth many growing one close unto another of the fashion of a Grape and therefore took the name the Oak-Grape and is of a Purplish colour on the outside Schem XXVIII and white within like Milk and in the end of Summer becometh hard and woody Whether this be the very same kind I cannot affirm but both the Picture and Description come very neer to that I have but that he seems not to take notice of the hollowness or Worm for which 't is most observable And therefore 't is very likely if men did but take notice they might find very many differing Species of these Nuts Ovaries or Matrixes and all of them to have much the same designation and office And I have very lately found several kinds of Excrescencies on Trees and Shrubs which having endured the Winter upon opening them I found most of them to contain little Worms but dead those things that contain'd them being wither'd and dry Observ. XLIV Of the tusted or Brush-born'd Gnat. THis little creature was one of those multitudes that fill our English air all the time that warm weather lasts and is exactly of the shape of that I observ'd to be generated and hatch'd out of those little Insects that wriggle up and down in Rain-water But though many were of this form yet I observ'd others to be of quite other kinds nor were all of this or the other kind generated out of Water Insects for whereas I observ'd that those that proceeded from those Insects were at their full growth I have also found multitudes of the same shape but much smaller and tenderer seeming to be very young ones creep up and down upon the leaves of Trees and flying up and down in small clusters in places very remote from water and this Spring I oberv'd one day when the Wind was very calm and the afternoon very fair and pretty warm though it had for a long time been very cold weather and the wind continued still in the East several small swarms of them playing to and fro in little clouds in the Sun each of which were not a tenth part of the bigness of one of these I here have delineated though very much of the same shape which makes me ghess that each of those swarms might be the of-spring of one onely Gnat which had been hoorded up in some safe repository all this Winter by some provident Parent and were now by the warmth of the Spring-air hatch'd into little Flies And indeed so various and seemingly irregular are the generations or productions of Insects that he that shall carefully and diligently observe the several methods of Nature therein will have infinitely cause further to admire the wisdom and providence of the Creator for not onely the same kind of creature may be produc'd from several kinds of ways but the very same creature may produce several kinds For as divers Watches may be made out of several materials which may yet have all the same appearance and move after the same manner that is sâ—â—w the hour equally true the one as the other and out of the same kind of matter like Watches may be wrought differing ways and is one and the same Watch may by being diversly agitated or mov'd by this or that agent or after this or that manner produce a quite contrary effect So may it be with these most curious Engines of Insect's bodies the All-wise God of Nature may have so ordered and disposed the little Automatons that when nourished acted or enlivened by this cause they produce one kind of effect or animate shape when by another they act quite another way and another Animal is produc'd So may he so order several materials as to make them by several kinds of methods produce similar Automatons But to come to the Description of this Insect as it appears through a Microscope of which a representation is made in the 28. Scheme It s head A is exceeding small in proportion to its body consisting of two clusters of pearl'd eyes BB on each side of its head whose pearls or eye-balls are curiously rang'd like those of other Flies between these in the forehead of it there are plac'd upon two small black balls CC two long jointed horns tapering towards the top much resembling the long horns of Lobsters each of whose stems or quills DD were brisled or brushed with multitudes of small stiff hairs issuing out every way from the several joints like the strings or sproutings of the herb Horse-tail which is oft observ'd to grow among Corn and for the whole shape it does very much resemble those brushy Vegetables besides these there are two other jointed and brisled horns or feelers EE in the forepart of the head and a proboseis F underneath which in some Gnats are very long streight hollow pipes by which these creatures are able to drill and penetrate the skin and thence through those pipes suck so much bloud as to stuff their bellies so full till they be ready to burst This small head with its appurtenances is fastned on by a short neck G to the middle of the thorax which is large and seems cased with a strong black shel HIK out of the under part of which issue six long and slender legs LLLLLL shap'd just like the legs of Flies but spun or drawn out longer and slenderer which could not be express'd in the Figure because of their great length and from the upper part two oblong but slender transparent wings MM
purpose which was indeed the chief cause of inventing these wayes of tryal we will suppose a Cylinder indefinitely extended upwards I say a Cylinder not a piece of a Cone because as I may elsewhere shew in the Explication of Gravity that triplicate proportion of the shels of a Sphere to their respective diameters I suppose to be removed in this case by the decrease of the power of Gravity and the pressure of the Air at the bottom of this Cylinder to be strong enough to keep up a Cylinder of Mercury of thirty inches Now because by the most accurate tryals of the most illustrious and incomparable Mr. Boyle published in his deservedly famous Pneumatick Book the weight of Quicksilver to that of the Air here below is found neer about as fourteen thousand to one If we suppose the parts of the Cylinder of the Atmosphere to be every where of an equal density we shall as he there deduces find it extended to the height of thirty five thousand feet or seven miles But because by these Experiments we have somewhat confirm'd the hypothesis of the reciprocal proportion of the Elaters to the Extensions we shall find that by supposing this Cylinder of the Atmosphere divided into a thousand parts each of which being equivalent to thirty five feet or seven geometrical paces that is each of these divisions containing as much Air as is suppos'd in a Cylinder neer the earth of equal diameter and thirty five foot high we shall find the lowermost to press against the surface of the Earth with the whole weight of the above mentioned thousand parts the pressure of the bottom of the second against the top of the first to be 1000 1 = 999. of the third against the second to be 1000 2 = 998. of the fourth against the third to be 1000 â— 3 = 997. of the uppermost against the 999. or that next below it to be 1000 999 = 1. so that the extension of the lowermost next the Earth will be to the extension of the next below the uppermost as 1. to 999. for as the pressure sustained by the 999. is to the pressure sustain'd by the first so is the extension of the first to the extension of the 999. so that from this hypothetical calculation we shall find the Air to be indefinitely extended For if we suppose the whole thickness of the Air to be divided as I just now instanced into a thousand parts and each of those under differing Dimensions or Altitudes to contain an equall quantity of Air we shall find that the first Cylinder whose Base is supposed to lean on the Earth will be found to be extended 35 35 999 foot the second equal Division or Cylinder whose basis is supposed to lean on the top of the first shall have its top extended higher by 35 70 998 the third 35 105 997 the fourth 35 140 996 and so onward each equal quantity of Air having its dimensions measured by 35 and some additional number exprest alwayes in the manner of a fraction whose numerator is alway the number of the place multipli'd by 35. and whose denominator is alwayes the pressure of the Atmosphere sustain'd by that part so that by this means we may easily calculate the height of 999. divisions of those 1000. divisions I suppos'd whereas the uppermost may extend it self more then as high again nay perhaps indefinitely or beyond the Moon for the Elaters and Expansions being in reciprocal proportions since we cannot yet find the plus ultra beyond which the Air will not expand it self we cannot determine the height of the Air for since as we have shewn the proportion will be alway as the pressure sustain'd by any part is to 35. so 1000. to the expansion of that part the multiplication or product therefore of the pressure and expansion that is of the two extream proportionals being alwayes equal to the product of the means or 35000. it follows since that Rectangle or Product may be made up of the multiplication of infinite diversities of numbers that the height of the Air is also indefinite for since as far as I have yet been able to try the Air seems capable of an indefinite Expansion the pressure may be decreased in infinitunt and consequently its expansion upwards indefinite also There being therefore such a difference of density and no Experiment yet known to prove a Saltus or skipping from one degree of rarity to another much differing from it that is that an upper part of the Air should so much differ from that immediately subjacent to it as to make a distinct superficies such as we observe between the Air and Water c. But it being more likely that there is a continual increase of rarity in the parts of the Air the further they are removed from the surface of the Earth It will hence necessarily follow that as in the Experiment of the salt and fresh Water the ray of Light passing obliquely through the Air also which is of very different density will be continually and infinitely inflected or bended from a streight or direct motion This granted the reason of all the above recited Phaenomena concerning the appearance of the Celestial Bodies will very easily be deduced As First The redness of the Sun Moon and Stars will be found to be caused by the inflection of the rays within the Atmosphere That it is not really in or near the luminous bodies will I suppose be very easily granted seeing that this redness is observable in several places differing in Longitude to be at the same time different the setting and rising Sun of all parts being for the most part red And secondly That it is not meerly the colour of the Air interpos'd will I suppose without much more difficulty be yielded seeing that we may observe a very great interstitium of Air betwixt the Object and the Eye makes it appear of a dead blew far enough differing from a red or yellow But thirdly That it proceeds from the refraction or inflection of the rays by the Atmosphere this following Experiment will I suppose sufficiently manifest Take a sphaerical Crystalline Viol such as is describ'd in the fifth Figure ABCD and having fill'd it with pure clear Water expose it to the Sun beams then taking a piece of very fine Venice Paper apply it against that side of the Globe that is opposite to the Sun as against the side BC and you shall perceive a bright red Ring to appear caus'd by the refraction of the Rays AAAA which is made by the Globe in which Experiment if the Glass and Water be very cleer so that there be no Sands nor bubbles in the Glass nor dirt in the Water you shall not perceive any appearance of any other colour To apply which Experiment we may imagine the Atmosphere to be a great transparent Globe which being of a substance more dense then the other or which comes to the same that has its parts
the Penumbra which is the shadow of the refracting Atmosphere for the bending of the Rays being altogether caus'd by Inflection as I have already shewn all that part which is ascribed by Kepler and others after him to the Penumbra or dark part which is without the umbra terroe does clear vanish for in this Hypothesis there is no refracting surface of the Air and consequently there can be no shadows such as appear in the ninth Figure of the 37. Scheme where let ABCD represent the Earth and EFGH the Atmosphere which according to Keplers supposition is like a Sphaere of Water terminated with an exact surface EFGH let the lines MF LB ID KH represent the Rays of the Sun 't is manifest that all the Rayes between LB and ID will be reflected by the surface of the Earth BAD and consequently the conical space BOD would be dark and obscure but say the followers of Kepler the Rays between MF and LB and between ID and KH falling on the Atmosphere are refracted both at their ingress and egress out of the Atmosphere nearer towards the Axis of the spaerical shadow CO and consequently inlighten a great part of that former dark Cone and shorten and contract its top to N. And because of this Reflection of these Rays say they there is superinduc'd another shell of a dark Cone FPH whose Apex P is yet further distant from the Earth By this Penumbra say they the Moon is Eclipsed for it alwayes passes between the lines 1 2 and 3 4. To which I say That if the Air be such as I have newly shewn it to be and consequently cause such an inflection of the Rays that fall into it those dark Penumbra's FYZQHXVT and ORPS will all vanish For if we suppose the Air indefinitely extended and to be no where bounded with a determinate refracting surface as I have shewn it uncapable of having from the nature of it it will follow that the Moon will no where be totally obscured but when it is below the Apex N of the dark blunt Cone of the Earth's shadow Now from the supposition that the Sun is distant about seven thousand Diameters the point N according to calculation being not above twenty five terrestrial Semidiameters from the Center of the Earth It follows that whensoever the Moon eclipsed is totally darkned without affording any kind of light it must be within twenty five Semidiameters of the Earth and consequently much lower then any Astronomers have hitherto put it This will seem much more consonant to the rest of the secundary Planets for the highest of Iupiter's Moons is between twenty and thirty Iovial Semidiameters distant from the Center of Iupiter and the Moons of Saturn much about the same number of Saturnial Semidiameters from the Center of that Planet But these are but conjectures also and must be determin'd by such kind of Observations as I have newly mention'd Nor will it be difficult by this Hypothesis to salve all the appearances of Eclipses of the Moon for in this Hypothesis also there will be on each side of the shadow of the Earth a Penumbra not caus'd by the Refraction of the Air as in the Hypothesis of Kepler but by the faint inlightning of it by the Sun For if in the sixth Figure we suppose ESQ and GSR to be the Rays that terminate the shadow from either side of the Earth ESQ coming from the upper limb of the Sun and GSR from the under it will follow that the shadow of the Earth within those Rays that is the Cone GSE will be totally dark But the Sun being not a point but a large area of light there will be a secondary dark Cone of shadow EPG which will be caus'd by the earth's hindring part of the Rays of the Sun from falling on the parts GPR and EPQ of which halved shadow or Penumbra that part will appear brightest which lyes nearest the terminating Rayes GP and EP and those darker that lye nearest to GS and ES when therefore the Moon appears quite dark in the middle of the Eclipse she must be below S that is between S and F when she appears lighter near the middle of the Eclipse she must pass some where between RQ and S and when she is alike light through the whole Eclypse she must pass between RQ and P. Observ. LIX Of multitudes of small Stars discoverable by the Telescope HAving in the last Observation premis'd some particulars observable in the medium through which we must look upon Coelestial Objects I shall here add one Observation of the Bodies themselves and for a specimen I have made choice of the Pleiades or seven Stars commonly so called though in our time and Climate there appear no more then six to the naked eye and this I did the rather because the deservedly famous Galileo having publisht a Picture of this Asterisme was able it seems with his Glass to discover no more then thirty six whereas with a pretty good twelve foot Telescope by which I drew this 38 Iconism I could very plainly discover seventy eight placed in the order they are ranged in the Figure and of as many differing Magnitudes as the Asterisks wherewith they are Marked do specifie there being no less then fourteen several Magnitudes of those Stars which are compris'd within the draught the biggest whereof is not accounted greater then one of the third Magnitude and indeed that account is much too big if it be compared with other Stars of the third Magnitude especially by the help of a Telescope for then by it may be perceiv'd that its splendor to the naked eye may be somewhat augmented by the three little Stars immediately above it which are near adjoyning to it The Telescope also discovers a great variety even in the bigness of those commonly reckon'd of the first second third fourth fifth and sixth Magnitude so that should they be distinguish'd thereby those six Magnitudes would at least afford no less then thrice that number of Magnitudes plainly enough distinguishable by their Magnitude and brightness so that a good twelve foot Glass would afford us no less then twenty five several Magnitudes Nor are these all but a longer Glass does yet further both more nicely distinguish the Magnitudes of those already noted and also discover several other of smaller Magnitudes not discernable by the twelve foot Glass Thus have I been able with a good thirty six foot Glass to discover many more Stars in the Pleiades then are here delineated and those of three or four distinct Magnitudes less then any of those spots of the fourteenth Magnitude And by the twinkling of divers other places of this Asterisme when the Sky was very clear I am apt to think that with longer Glasses or such as would bear a bigger aperture there might be discovered multitudes of other small Stars yet inconspicuous And indeed for the discovery of small Stars the bigger the aperture be the better adapted is
not onely into the Microscopical pores and so perfectly stoping them up but also into the pores or interstitia which may perhaps be even in the texture or Schematismâ— of that part of the Wood which through the Microscope appears most solid do thereby so aâ—gment the weight of the Wood as to make it above three times heavier then water and perhaps six times as heavie as it was when Wood. Next they thereby so lock up and â—etter the parts of the Wood that the fire cannot easily make them flie away but the action of the fire upon them is onely able to Char those parts as it were like a piece of Wood if it be clos'd very fast up in Clay and kept a good while red-hot in the fire will by the heat of the fire be charr'd and not consum'd which may perhaps also be somewhat of the cause why the petrify'd substance appear'd of a dark brown colour after it had been burnt By this intrusion of the petrifying particles this substance also becomes hard and friable for the smaller pores of the Wood being perfectly wedg'd and stuft up with those stony particles the small parts of the Wood have no places or pores into which they may slide upon bending and consequently little or no flexion or yielding at all can be caus'd in such a substance The remaining particles likewise of the Wood among the stony particles may keep them from cracking and flying when put into the fire as they are very apt to do in a Flint Nor is Wood the onely substance that may by this kind of transâ—â—tation be chang'd into stone for I my self have seen and examin'd very many kinds of substances and among very credible Authours we may meet with Histories of such Metamorphoses wrought almost on all kind of substances both Vegetable and Animal which Histories it is not my business at present either to relate or epitomise but only to set down some Observation I lately made on several kind of petrify'd Shels found about Keinsham which lies within four or five miles of Brisâ—ol which are commonly call'd Serpentine-stones Examining several of these very curiously figur'd bodies which are commonly thought to be Stones form'd by some extraordinary Plastick virtue latent in the Earth itself I took notice of these particulars First that these figured bodies or stones were of very differing substances as to hardness some of Clay some Marle some soft Stone almost of the hardness of those soft stones which Masons call Fire-stone others as hard as Portland stone others as hard as Marble and some as hard a a Flint or Crystal Next they were of very differing substances as to transparency and colour some white some almost black some brown some Metalline or like Marchasites some transparent like white Marble others like flaw'd Crystal some gray some of divers colours some radiated like these long petrify'd drops which are commonly found at the Peak and in other subterraneous caverns which have a kind of pith in the middle Thirdly that they were very different as to the manner of their outward figuration for some of them seem'd to have been the substance that had fill'd the Shell of some kind of Shel-fish others to have been the substance that had contain'd or enwrapp'd one of those Shels on both which the perfect impression either of the inside or outside of such Shells seem'd to be left but for the most part those impressions seem'd to be made by an imperfect or broken Shell the great end or mouth of the Shell being always wanting and oftentimes the little end and sometimes half and in some there were impressions just as if there had been holes broken in the figurating imprinting or moulding Shell some of them seem'd to be made by such a Shell very much brused or flaw'd insomuch that one would verily have thought that very figur'd stone had been broken or brused whilst a gelly as 't were and so hardned but within in the grain of the stone there appear'd not the least sign of any such bruse or breaking but onely on the very uttermost superficies Fourthly they were very different as to their outward covering some having the perfect Shell both in figure colour and substance sticking on upon its surface and adhering to it but might very easily be separated from it and like other common Cockle or Scolop-shels which some of them most accurately resembled were very dissoluble in common Vinegar others of them especially those Serpentine or Helical stones were cover'd or retained the shining or Pearl-colour'd substance of the inside of a Shel which substance on some parts of them was exceeding thin and might very easily be rubbed off on other parts it was pretty thick and retained a white coat or flaky substance on the top just like the outsides of such Shells some of them had very large pieces of the Shell very plainly sticking on to them which were easily to be broken or flaked off by degrees they likewise some of them retain'd all along the surface of them very pretty kind of sutures such as are observ'd in the skulls of several kinds of living creatures which sutures were most curiously shap'd in the manner of leaves and every one of them in the same Shell exactly one like another which I was able to discover plainly enough with my naked eye but more perfectly and distinctly with my Microscope all these sutures by breaking some of these stones I found to be the termini or boundings of certain diaphragms or partitions which seem'd to divide the cavity of the Shell into a multitude of very proportionate and regular cells or caverns these Diaphragms in many of them I found very perfect and compleat of a very distinct substance from that which fill'd the cavities and exactly of the same kind with that which covered the outside being for the most part whitish or mother-of-pearl colour'd As for the cavities between those Diaphragms I found some of them fill'd with Marle and others with several kinds of stones others for the most part hollow onely the whole cavity was usually covered over with a kind of tartareous petrify'd substance which stuck about the sides and was there shot into very curious regular Figures just as Tartar or other dissolv'd Salts are observ'd to stick and crystallize about the sides of the containing Vessels or like those little Diamants which I before observed to have covered the vaulted cavity of a Flint others had these cavities all lin'd with a kind of metalline or marchasite-like substance which with a Microscope I could as plainly see most curiously and regularly figured as I had done those in a Flint From all which and several other particulars which I observ'd I cannot but think that all these and most other kinds of stony bodies which are found thus strangely figured do owe their formation and figuration not to any kind of Plastick virtue inherent in the earth but to the Shells of certain Shel-fishes which either by
some Deluge Inundation Earthquake or some such other means came to be thrown to that place and there to be fill'd with some kind of Mudd or Clay or petrifying Water or some other substance which in tract of time has been settled together and hardned in those shelly moulds into those shaped substances we now find them that the great and thin end of these Shells by that Earthquake or what ever other extraordinary cause it was that brought them thither was broken off and that many others were otherwise broken bruised and disfigured that these Shells which are thus spirallied and separated with Diaphragmes were some kind of Nautili or Porcelane shells and that others were shells of Cockles Muscles Periwincles Scolops c. of various sorts that these Shells in many from the particular nature of the containing or enclos'd Earth or some other cause have in tract of time rotted and mouldred away and onely left their impressions both on the containing and contained substances and so left them pretty loose one within another so that they may be easily separated by a knock or two of a Hammer That others of these Shells according to the nature of the substances adjacent to them have by a long continuance in that posture been petrify'd and turn'd into the nature of stone just as I even now observ'd several sorts of Wood to be That oftentimes the Shell may be found with one kind of substance within and quite another without having perhaps been fill'd in one place and afterwards translated to another which I have very frequently observ'd in Cockle Muscle Periwincle and other shells which I have found by the Sea side Nay further that some parts of the same Shell may be fill'd in one place and some other caverns in another and others in a third or a fourth or a fifth place for so many differing substances have I found in one of these petrify'd Shells and perhaps all these differing from the encompassing earth or stone the means how all which varieties may be caus'd I think will not be difficult to conceive to any one that has taken notice of those Shells which are commonly found on the Sea shore And he that shall throughly examine several kinds of such curiously form'd stones will I am very apt to think find reason to suppose their generation or formation to be ascribable to some such accidents as I have mention'd and not to any Plastick virtue For it seems to me quite contrary to the infinite prudence of Nature which is observable in all its works and productions to design every thing to a determinate end and for the attaining of that end makes use of such ways as are as farr as the knowledge of man has yet been able to reach altogether consonant and most agreeable to man's reason and of no way or means that does contradict or is contrary to humane Ratiocination whence it has a long time been a general observation and maxime that Nature does nothing in vain It seems I say contrary to that great Wisdom of Nature that these prettily shap'd bodies should have all those curious Figures and contrivances which many of them are adorn'd and contriv'd with generated or wrought by a Plastick virtue for no higher end then onely to exhibite such a form which he that shall throughly consider all the circumstances of such kind of Figur'd bodies will I think have great reason to believe though I confess one cannot presently be able to find out what Nature's designs are It were therefore very desirable that a good collection of such kind of figur'd stones were collected and as many particulars circumstances and informations collected with them as could be obtained that from such a History of Observations well rang'd examin'd and digested the true original or production of all those kinds of stones might be perfectly and surely known such as are Thunder-stones Lapides Stellares Lapides Iudaici and multitudes of other whereof mention is made in Aldrovandus Wormius and other Writers of Minerals Observ. XVIII Of the Schematisme or Texture of Cork and of the Cells and Pores of some other such frothy Bodies I Took a good clear piece of Cork and with a Pen-knife sharpen'd as keen as a Razor I cut a piece of it off and thereby left the surface of it exceeding smooth then examining it very diligently with a Microscope me thought I could perceive it to appear a little porous but I could not so plainly distinguish them as to be sure that they were pores much less what Figure they were of But judging from the lightness and yielding quality of the Cork that certainly the texture could not be so curious but that possibly if I could use some further diligence I might find it to be discernable with a Microscope I with the same sharp Pen-knife cut off from the former smooth surface an exceeding thin piece of it and placing it on a black object Plate because it was it self a white body and casting the light on it with a deep plano-convex Glass I could exceeding plainly perceive it to be all perforated and porous much like a Honey-comb but that the pores of it were not regular yet it was not unlike a Honey-comb in these particulars First in that it had a very little solid substance in comparison of the empty cavity that was contain'd between as does more manifestly appear by the Figure A and B of the XI Scheme for the Interstitia or walls as I may so call them or partitions of those pores were neer as thin in proportion to their pores as those thin films of Wax in a Honey-comb which enclose and constitute the sexangular cells are to theirs Next in that these pores or cells were not very deep but consisted of a great many little Boxes separated out of one continued long pore by certain Diaphragms as is visible by the Figure B which represents a sight of those pores split the long-ways I no sooner discern'd these which were indeed the first microscopical pores I ever saw and perhaps that were ever seen for I had not met with any Writer or Person that had made any mention of them before this but me thought I had with the discovery of them presently hinted to me the true and intelligible reason of all the Phaenomena of Cork As First if I enquir'd why it was so exceeding light a body my Microscope could presently inform me that here was the same reason evident that there is found for the lightness of froth an empty Honey-comb Wool a Spunge a Pumice-stone or the like namely a very small quantity of a solid body extended into exceeding large dimensions Next it seem'd nothing more difficult to give an intelligible reason why Cork is a body so very unapt to suck and drink in Water and consequently preserves it self floating on the top of Water though left on it never so long and why it is able to stop and hold air in a Bottle though it be
the water can very little or not at all penetrate this therefore retaining always very neer the same dimensions and the other stretching and shrinking according as there is more or less moisture or water in its pores by reason of the make and shape of the parts the whole body must necessarily unwreath and wreath it self And upon this Principle it is very easie to make several sorts of contrivances that should thus wreath and unwreath themselves either by heat and cold or by driness and moisture or by any greater or less force from whatever cause it proceed whether from gravity or weight or from wind which is motion of the Air or from some springing body or the like This had I time I should enlarge much more upon for it seems to me to be the very first footstep of Sensation and Animate motion the most plain simple and obvious contrivance that Nature has made use of to produce a motion next to that of Rarefaction and Condensation by heat and cold And were this Principle very well examin'd I am very apt to think it would afford us a very great help to find out the Mechanism of the Muscles which indeed as farr as I have hitherto been able to examine seems to me not so very perplex as one might imagine especially upon the examination which I made of the Muscles of Crabs Lobsters and several sorts of large Shell-fish and comparing my Observations on them with the circumstances I observ'd in the muscles of terrestrial Animals Now as in this Instance of the Beard of a wilde Oat we see there is nothing else requisite to make it wreath and unwreath it self and to streighten and bend its knee then onely a little breath of moist or dry Air or a small atome almost of water or liquor and a little heat to make it again evaporate for by holding this Beard plac'd and fix'd as I before directed neer a Fire and dipping the tip of a small shred of Paper in well rectify'd spirit of Wine and then touching the wreath'd Cylindrical part you may perceive it to untwist it self and presently again upon the avolation of the spirit by the great heat it will re-twist it self and thus will it move forward and backwards as oft as you repeat the touching it with the spirit of Wine so may perhaps the shrinking and relaxing of the muscles be by the influx and evaporation of some kind of liquor or juice But of this Enquiry I shall add more elsewhere Observ. XXVIII Of the Seeds of Venus looking-glass or Corn Violet FRom the Leaves and Downs and Beards of Plants we come at last to the Seeds and here indeed seems to be the Cabinet of Nature wherein are laid up its Jewels The providence of Nature about Vegetables is in no part manifested more then in the various contrivances about the seed nor indeed is there in any part of the Vegetable so curious carvings and beautifull adornments as about the seed this in the larger sorts of seeds is most evident to the eye nor is it less manifest through the Microscope in those seeds whose shape and structure by reason of their smalness the eye is hardly able to distinguish Of these there are multitudes many of which I have observ'd through a Microscope and find that they do for the most part every one afford exceeding pleasant and beautifull objects For besides those that have various kinds of carv'd surfaces there are other that have smooth and perfectly polish'd surfaces others a downy hairy surface some are cover'd onely with a skin others with a kind of shell others with both as is observable also in greater seeds Schem XVII Schem XVIII This though it appear'd one of the most promising seeds for beauty to the naked eye yet through the Microscope it appear'd but a rude mishapen seed which I therefore drew that I might thereby manifest how unable we are by the naked eye to judge of beauteous or less curious microscopical Objects cutting some of them in sunder I observ'd them to be fill'd with a greenish yellow pulp and to have a very thick husk in proportion to the pulp Observ. XXIX Of the seeds of Tyme THese pretty fruits here represented in the 18. Scheme are nothing else but nine several seeds of Tyme they are all of them in differing posture both as to the eye and the light nor are they all of them exactly of the same shape there being a great variety both in the bulk and figure of each seed but they all agreed in this that being look'd on with a Microscope they each of them exactly resembled a Lemmon or Orange dry'd and this both in shape and colour Some of them are a little rounder of the shape of an Orange as A and B they have each of them a very conspicuous part by which they were join'd to their little stalk and one of them had a little piece of stalk remaining on the opposite side of the seed you may perceive very plainly by the Figure is very copped and prominent as is very usual in Lemmons which prominencies are express'd in D E and F. They seem'd each of them a little creas'd or wrinckled but E was very conspicuously furrow'd as if the inward make of this seed had been somewhat like that of a Lemmon also but upon dividing several seeds with a very sharp Pen-knife and examining them afterward I found their make to be in nothing but bulk differing from that of Peas that is to have a pretty thick coat and all the rest an indifferent white pulp which seem'd very close so that it seems Nature does not very much alter her method in the manner of inclosing and preserving the vital Principle in the seed in these very small grains from that of Beans Peas c. The Grain affords a very pretty Object for the Microscope namely a Dish of Lemmons plac'd in a very little room should a Lemmon or Nut be proportionably magnify'd to what this seed of Tyme is it would make it appear as bigg as a large Hay-teek and it would be no great wonder to see Homers Iliads and Homer and all cramm'd into such a Nut-shell We may perceive even in these small Grains as well as in greater how curious and carefull Nature is in preserving the seminal principle of Vegetable bodies in what delicate strong and most convenient Cabinets she lays them and closes them in a pulp for their safer protection from outward dangers and for the supply of convenient alimental juice when the heat of the Sun begins to animate and move these little automanâ—â—s or Engines as if she would from the ornaments wherewith she as deckt these Cabinets hint to us that in them she has laid up her Jewels and Master-pieces And this if we are but diligent in observing we shall find her method throughout There is no curiosity in the Elemental kingdom if I may so call the bodies of Air Water Earth that are comparable in
form to those of Minerals Air and Water having no form at all unless a potentiality to be form'd into Globules and the clods and parcels of Earth are all irregular whereas in Minerals she does begin to Geometrize and practise as 't were the first principles of Mechanicks shaping them of plain regular figures as triangles squares c. and tetraedrons cubes c. But none of their forms are comparable to the more compounded ones of Vegetables For here she goes a step further forming them both of more complicated shapes and adding also multitudes of curious Mechanick contrivances in their structure for whereas in Vegetables there was no determinate number of the leaves or branches nor no exactly certain figure of leaves or flowers or seeds in Animals all those things are exactly defin'd and determin'd and where-ever there is either an excess or defect of those determinate parts or limbs there has been some impediment that has spoil'd the principle which was most regular Here we shall find not onely most curiously compounded shapes but most stupendious Mechanisms and contrivances here the ornaments are in the highest perfection nothing in all the Vegetable kingdom that is comparable to the deckings of a Peacock nay to the curiosity of any feather as I elsewhere shew nor to that of the smallest and most despicable Fly But I must not stay on these speculations though perhaps it were very well worth while for one that had leisure to see what Information may be learn'd of the nature or use or virtues of bodies by their several forms and various excellencies and properties Who knows but Adam might from some such contemplation give names to all creatures If at least his names had any significancy in them of the creature's nature on which he impos'd it as many upon what grounds I know not have suppos'd And who knows but the Creator may in those characters have written and engraven many of his most mysterious designs and counsels and given man a capacity which assisted with diligence and industry may be able to read and understand them But not to multiply my digression more then I can the time I will proceed to the next which is Observ. XXX Of the Seeds of Poppy THe small seeds of Poppy which are described in the 19. Scheme both for their smalness multiplicity and prettiness as also for their admirable soporifick quality deserve to be taken notice of among the Schem XIX Schem XX. other microscopical seeds of Vegetables For first though they grow in a Case or Hive oftentimes bigger then one of these Pictures of the microscopical appearance yet are they for the most part so very little that they exceed not the bulk of a small Nitt being not above â— 32 part of an Inch in Diameter whereas the Diameter of the Hive of them oftentimes exceeds two Inches so that it is capable of containing neer two hundred thousand and so in all likelihood does contain a vast quantity though perhaps not that number Next for their prettiness they may be compar'd to any microscopical seed I have yet seen for they are of a dark brownish red colour curiously Honey comb'd all over with a very pretty variety of Net-work or a small kind of imbosment of very orderly rais'd ridges the surface of them looking not unlike the inside of a Beev's stomack But that which makes it most considerable of all is the medicinal virtues of it which are such as are not afforded us by any Mineral preparation and that is for the procuring of sleep a thing as necessary to the well-being of a creature as his meat and that which refreshes both the voluntary and rational faculties which whil'st this affection has seis'd the body are for the most part unmov'd and at rest And methinks Nature does seem to hint some very notable virtue or excellency in this Plant from the curiosity it has bestow'd upon it First in its flower it is of the highest scarlet-Dye which is indeed the prime and chiefest colour and has been in all Ages of the world most highly esteem'd Next it has as much curiosity shew'd also in the husk or case of the seed as any one Plant I have yet met withall and thirdly the very seeds themselves the Microscope discovers to be very curiously shap'd bodies and lastly Nature has taken such abundant care for the propagation of it that one single seed grown into a Plant is capable of bringing some hundred thousands of seeds It were very worthy some able man's enquiry whether the intention of Nature as to the secundary end of Animal and Vegetable substances might not be found out by some such characters and notable impressions as these or from divers other circumstances as the figure colour place time of flourishing springing and fading duration taste smell c. For if such there are as an able Physician upon good grounds has given me cause to believe we might then insteed of studying Herbals where so little is deliver'd of the virtues of a Plant and less of truth have recourse to the Book of Nature it self and there find the most natural usefull and most effectual and specifick Medicines of which we have amongst Vegetables two very noble Instances to incourage such a hope the one of the Iesuite powder for the cure of intermitting Feaâ—â—â—s and the other of the juice of Poppy for the curing the defect of sleeping Observ. XXXI Of Purslane-seed THe Seeds of Purslane seem of very notable shapes appearing through the Microscope shap'd somewhat like a nautilus or Porcelane shell as may be seen in the XX. Scheme it being a small body coyl'd round in the manner of a Spiral at the greater end whereof which represents the mouth or orifice of the Shell there is left a little white transparent substance like a skin represented by BBBB which seems to have been the place whereunto the stem was join'd The whole surface of this Coclea or Shell is cover'd over with abundance of little prominencies or buttons very orderly rang'd into Spiral rows the shape of each of which seem'd much to resemble a Wart upon a mans hand The order variety and curiosity in the shape of this little seed makes it a very pleasant object for the Microscope one of them being cut asunder with a very sharp Pen-knife discover'd this carved Casket to be of a brownish red and somewhat transparent substance and manifested the inside to be fill'd with a whitish green substance or pulp the Bed wherein the seminal principle lies invelop'd There are multitudes of other seeds which in shape represent or imitate the forms of divers other sorts of Shells as the seed of Scurvy-grass very much resembles the make of a Concha Venerea a kind of Purcelane Shell others represent several sorts of larger fruits sweat Marjerome and Pot-marjerome represent Olives Carret seeds are like a cleft of a Coco-Nut Husk others are like Artificial things as Succory seeds are like a Quiver full